Ten Years Near the German Frontier Part 7

'No,' I said.

'Well, he has attempted to give the working-men in Russia a chance; he has tried to gain for them one-tenth of the place which working-men in your country have, and, in 1905, he was answered by the ma.s.sacre of the Narva gate. The Tsar is a fool, with an imperialistic _hausfrau_ for a wife. If you will read the last words of Father Gapon's _Life_, you will find these words:

'"I may say, with certainty, that the struggle is quickly approaching its inevitable climax: that Nicholas II. is preparing for himself the fate which befell a certain English King and a certain French King long ago, and that such members of his dynasty as escape unhurt from the throes of the Revolution, will some day, in a not very distant future, find themselves exiles upon some Western sh.o.r.e." I may live to see this; but I hope that the Empress Marie may not. She knows where the policy of her daughter-in-law, who has all the stupidity of Marie Antoinette, without her charm, would lead; she says of her son,--"he was on the right road before he married that narrow-minded woman!"'

This, remember, was in 1908. It was whispered even then in Copenhagen that Russia was beginning to break up. The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps was Count Calvi di Bergolo, honest, brave, opinionated, who would teach you everything, from how to jump a hurdle to the gaseous compositions in the moon. He was of the _haute ecole_ at the riding school and of the _vielle ecole_ of diplomacy. He was very frank. He had a great social vogue because of a charming wife and a most exquisite daughter, now the Princess Aage. He would never speak English; French was the diplomatic language; it gave a diplomatist too much of an advantage, if one spoke in his native tongue. He believed in the protocol to the letter; he was a martinet of a Dean.

'Public opinion,' he said scornfully, 'public opinion in the United States is for peace. In Europe, if we could all have what we want, we should all keep the peace; but what chance of peace can there be until Italy has the Trentino or France Alsace-Lorraine, or until Germany gets to her place by controlling the Slavs. You are of a new country, where they believe things because they are impossible.'

He was a wise gentleman and he, too, watched Germany. It was plain that he disliked the Triple Alliance. Suddenly it dawned on me 'like thunder' that we had an interest in watching Germany, too.

It seemed to be a foregone conclusion that Germany would one day absorb Denmark. 'And then the Danish West Indies would automatically become German!' This was my one thought. The 'fixed idea'!

It is pleasanter to be Dean of the Diplomatic Corps than a new-comer.

It must be extremely difficult for a diplomatic representative to be comfortable at once, coming from American localities where etiquette is a matter of gentlemanly feeling only, and where artificial conventionalities hardly count. In a monarchical country, the outward relations are changed. Socially, rank counts for much, and the rules of precedence are as necessary as the use of a napkin. To have lived in Washington--not the changed Washington of 1918-19--was a great help. After long observation of the niceties of official etiquette in the official society of our own Capital, Copenhagen had no terrors.

CHAPTER V

GLIMPSES OF THE GERMAN POINT OF VIEW IN RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES

Time pa.s.sed. There were alarms, and rumours that German money was corrupting France, that the distrust aroused by the Morocco incident was growing, that the French patriot believed that his opponent, the French pacifist, was using religious differences to weaken the _morale_ of the French army and navy, to convince Germany that the 'revenge' for 1870 was forgotten.

One day, a very clever English attache came to luncheon; he always kept his eyes open, and he was allowed by me to take liberties in conversation which his chief would never have permitted; it is a great mistake to bottle up the young, or to try to do it.

'You are determined to be friends with Germany,' he said, 'and Germany seems to be determined to be friends with you. Your Foreign Office has evidently instructed you to be very sympathetic with the German minister. He seldom sees anybody but you; but, at the same time you have recalled Mr. Tower, whom the Kaiser likes, to give him Mr. Hill, whom he seems not to want.'

'It is not a question as to whom the Kaiser wants exactly; we ostensibly sent an amba.s.sador to the German Emperor, but really to the German people. Mr. Hill is one of the most experienced of our diplomatists.'

'The Kaiser does not want that. Mr. Tower habituated him to splendour, and he likes Americans to be splendid. Rich people ought to spend their money in Berlin. Besides, he had been accustomed to Mr. Tower, who, he thinks, will oil the wheels of diplomatic intercourse. Just at this moment, when the Kaiser has lost prestige because of his double-dealing with the Boers and his apparent deceit on the Morocco question, he does not want a man of such devotion to the principles of The Hague convention and so const.i.tutional as Mr.

Hill, who may acknowledge the charm of the emperor, but who, even in spite of himself, will not be influenced by it.'

'How do you know this?'

'Everybody about the court in Berlin knows it, but I hear it from Munich. But Speck von Sternberg would have balanced Hill, if he had lived. They think he would have influenced President Roosevelt. Tell us the secrets of the White House--you ought to know--it was an awful compet.i.tion between Speck and Jusserand, I hear.'

'President Roosevelt is not easily influenced,' I said.

Persons whom I knew in Berlin wrote to me, informing me how charmed the Kaiser was with the new amba.s.sador; but, in Copenhagen, we learned that what the Kaiser wanted was not a great international lawyer, but a rich American of less intensity.

It was worth while to get Russian opinions.

'The Kaiser is having a bad time,' I remarked to a Russian of my acquaintance--a most brilliant man, now almost, as he said himself, _homme sans patrie_.

'Temporarily,' he answered; 'those indiscreet p.r.o.nouncements of his on the Boers and the reversion of his att.i.tude against England in the affair of Morocco have shown him that he cannot clothe inconsistency in the robes of infallibility. He is a personal monarch and he sinks all his personality in his character as a monarch. He is made to the likeness of G.o.d, and there is an almost hypostatic union between G.o.d and him! Our Tsar is by no means so absolute, though you Americans all persist in thinking so. I have given you some doc.u.ments on that point; I trust that you have sent them to your President. I am sure, however, that he knew _that_. Do not imagine that the emperor will be deposed, because he has made a row in Germany. He has only discovered how far he can go by personal methods, that is all; he has learned his lesson--_reculer pour mieux sauter_. He has played a clever game with you. Bernstorff, his new amba.s.sador, will offset Hill. Your investments in Russia will now come through German hands, and you will get a bad blow in the matter of potash.'

'What do you mean?' I asked. I had regarded Count Bernstorff as a Liberal. His English experience seemed to have singled him out as one of the diplomatists of the Central Powers--there were several--inclined to admit that other nations had rights which Germany was bound to respect. In private conversations, he had shown himself very favourable to the United States, and had even disapproved of German attacks on the Monroe Doctrine in Brazil.

'Count Bernstorff is not likely to offend Washington, or to reopen the wound that was made at Manila.'

'You talk as if diplomatists were not, first of all, instructed to look after the business interests of their countries. Do you think Bernstorff has been chosen to dance cotillions with your 'cave dwellers' in Washington or to compliment Senators' wives? First, his appointment is meant to flatter you. Second, he will easily flatter you because he really likes America and it is his business to flatter you. Third, he will do his best to induce you to a.s.sist England in strangling Russia in favour of Turkey. Fourth, he will grip hard, without offending you, the German monopoly of potash. He doesn't want trouble between the United States and Germany. He knows that any difficulty of that kind would be disastrous; he is as anxious to avoid that as is Ballin. Under the glimmer of rank, of which you think so much in America, commercialism is the secret of Germany's spirit to-day. In Berlin, I heard an American, one of your denaturalised, trying to curry favour with Prince von Bulow by saying that the national genius of Germany demanded that Alsace-Lorraine should be kept by Germany to avenge the insolence of Louis XIV. and Napoleon. Prince von Bulow smiled. He knew that your compatriot was working for an invitation to an exclusive something or other for his wife. Bernstorff is just the man to neutralise Hill. It's iron ore and potash in Alsace-Lorraine that the emperor cares about.'

'And yet I know, at first hand, that the Pan-German hates Bernstorff.

If anything approaching to a Liberal Government came in Germany, Bernstorff will be Minister of Foreign Affairs.'

My Russian friend smiled sardonically. 'We Russians feel that our one salvation is to oust the Turk and get to the Mediterranean. My party would provoke a war with Germany to-morrow, if we could afford it, and Germany knows it. Count Bernstorff, the most sympathetic of all German diplomatists, knows this, too, and you may be sure that he will persuade your Government that he loves you, give the Russian programme a nasty stroke when he can, and keep the price of potash high. I, desirous as I am of being an Excellency, would refuse to go to Berlin to-morrow, if I had Bernstorff against me on the other side. See what will happen to Hill! Germany may offend you, but Bernstorff will persuade you that it is the simple _gaucherie_ of a rustic youth who a.s.sumes the antics of a playful bear[5]--a hug or two; it may hurt, but the jovial bear means well! If Hill should leave Berlin, you will need a clever man who has political power with your Government. Bernstorff will contrive to put any other kind of man in the wrong--I tell you that.'

[5] 'We can say without hesitation that during the last century the United States have nowhere found better understanding or juster recognition than in this country. More than any one else the Emperor William II. manifested this understanding and appreciation of the United States of America.'--Von Bulow's _Imperial Germany_, p. 51.

The Russian who predicted this is in exile, penniless, a man _sans patrie_, as he says himself. When I took these notes he seemed to be above the blows of fate!

If the hand of Germany was everywhere, everybody was watching the movements of the fingers. Among the English there were two parties: One that could tolerate nothing German, the other that hated everything Russian, but both united in one belief, that the alliance with j.a.pan would not hold under the influence of German intrigue and that Italy could not long remain a member of the Triple Alliance.

The gossip from Berlin was always full of pleasant things for an American to hear. The Kaiser treated our compatriots with unusual courtesy.

In Copenhagen we were deluged with letters announcing that Count Bernstorff's coming meant a new era; he even excelled 'Speck' in his charm, sympathy, and everything that ought to endear him to us; in him showed that true desire for peace of which his august master was, of all the world, the best representative. It was even rumoured that the German Foreign Office had begun to coquette with the Danish Social Democrats.

The exchange of professors between the United States and Germany was becoming an inst.i.tution. Sometimes the American professors found themselves in awkward positions; they did not 'rank'; they had no fixed position from the German point of view. As mere American commoners, unrecognised by their Government, undecorated, they could not expect attentions from the court as a right. However, the Germans studied them and rather liked some of them, but, not being _raths_, they were poor creatures without standing. Even if they should make reputations approved by the great German universities, they had no future. How green were the lawns and how pleasant the sweet waters in the enclosed gardens of autocracy, of which the Emperor, Fountain of Honours, kept the key!

It was amusing to note the German att.i.tude toward democracy, in spite of all the pleasant things said by the High, Well-Born citizens of the Fatherland in favour of the American brand. At the same time, one could not help seeing that the children of the Kaiser were wiser than the children of--let us say modestly--Light. 'If the President asked me,' said one of the most distinguished of lawyers and the most loyal of Philadelphians to me, 'I should be willing to live all my life in Germany.' This was the result of the impression the charm of the Kaiser made on the best of us.

He has changed his opinion now; he swears by the works of his compatriot, Mr. Beck. Even then, in 1908-9, my distinguished Philadelphia friend could not have endured life in Germany. He forgot that even the emperor could not give him rank, and that no matter how cosmopolitan, how learned, how tactful he was, he would at once be a commoner, and very much of a commoner on the day he settled there as a resident.

A Prussian Serene Highness, who came with letters from an Irish relative in Hungary dropped in; he was mostly Bavarian in blood; he had cousins in England and Italy. He liked a good luncheon, and, as Miss Knollys always said (I quote this without shame), 'The best food in Europe is at the American Legation!' He smoked, too, and Rafael Estrada, of Havana, had chosen the cigars.

'France is difficult,' said my acquaintance, His Serene Highness. 'It is not really democratic; and England will go to pieces before it becomes democratic.

'You Americans have freedom with order, and you respect rank and t.i.tles, though you do not covet them. That is why the Kaiser would not send any amba.s.sador not of a great family to you. All Americans who come to Berlin desire to be presented at court. It is a sign that you will come to our way of thinking some day. We are not so far apart. You who write must tell your people that we are calumniated, we are not despots. That woman, the author of _Elizabeth and Her German Garden_, married to a friend of mine, does us harm. But most Americans see Germany in a mellow light. We are akin in our aspirations--Frederick the Great understood that.

'Bismarck, great as he was, became ambitious only for his family. His son, the coming chancellor, would have used our young emperor as a puppet, if our emperor had not put him into his place. This is the truth, and I am telling it to you confidentially. The British Government will come to anarchy if it weakens the House of Lords. The House of Commons is already weak. There is no barrier between honest rule and the demagogues. With your magnificent Senate there will always be a wall between the will of the _canaille_ and good government. We Germans understand you!'

'But suppose,' it was Mr. Alexander Weddell, then connected with the Legation, now Consul General at Athens, who broke in, 'you should differ from us on the Monroe Doctrine. I have recently read an article by Mr. Frederick Wile in an English magazine on your management of your people in Brazil.'

'"Our people!" The Serene Highness seemed startled. 'A German is always a German. It is the call of the blood.'

'And something more,' Mr. Weddell said, 'a German citizen is always a German citizen; you never admit that a German can become a Brazilian.

Suppose you should want to join your Germans in Brazil with your Germans at home. What would become of our Monroe Doctrine?'

'There are Germans in your country who have ceased to be Germans, and your upper cla.s.ses are Anglicised, except when they marry into one of our great families; nevertheless, our own people would still see that you don't go too far with your Monroe Doctrine. It has not yet been drastically interpreted. The Monroe Doctrine is a method of defence.

To interfere with the call of the German blood from one country to another would be offensive to us, and I cannot conceive of your country so far forgetting itself!'

His Serene Highness was of a mediatised house--a gentleman who had much experience in diplomacy. He had, I think, visited Newport, and been almost engaged to an American girl. The legend ran that, when this lady saw him without his uniform, she broke the engagement. He was splendid in his uniform. He thought he knew the United States; he even quoted Bryce and De Tocqueville; he had the impression that the Kaiser's propaganda of education was Germanising us for our good.

'The most eminent professors at your most important universities are Germans. Your newest university, that of Chicago, would have no reputation in Europe if it were not for the Germans. Wundt has revolutionised your conception of psychology; your scientific and historical methods are borrowed from us. Even your orthodox Protestants quote Harnack. Virchow long ago put out the lights of Huxley and Spencer. And the Catholic German in America, whom Bismarck almost alienated from us, revolts against the false Americanism of Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Ireland, whom the Kaiser rates as a son of the Revolution. Your Catholic University has begun to be moulded in the German way. Mgr. Schroeder, highly considered, was one of the most energetic of the professors----'