transport was sunk." "But that is impossible," returned the burgher, "we
know from our Government at Berlin that you have only 150,000 troops in

Europe."
Germans remain German. At Coblenz they were servile, cringing, fawning,

ready to lick the boots of the Americans, loading them with offers of
every food and drink and joy they had. Thus they began. Soon, finding

that the Americans did not cut their throats, burn their houses, rape
their daughters, or bayonet their babies, but were quiet, civil,

disciplined, and apparentlyharmless, they changed. Their fawning faded
away, they scowled and muttered. One day the Burgomaster at a certain

place replied to some ordinary requisitions with an arrogantrefusal. It
was quite out of the question, he said, to comply with any such

ridiculous demands. Then the Americans ceased to seem harmless. Certain
steps were taken by the commanding officer, some leading citizens were

collected and enlightened through the only channelwhereby light
penetrates a German skull. Thus, by a very slight taste of the methods

by which they thought they would cow the rest of the world, these
burghers were cowed instantly. They had thought the Americans afraid of

them. They had taken civility for fear. Suddenly they encountered what
we call the swift kick. It educated them. It always will. Nothing else

will.
Mathias Erzberger will, of course, disclaim his letter. He will say it is

a forgery. He will point to the protestations of German repentance and
reform with which he sweated during April, 1919, and throughout the weeks

preceding the delivery of the Treaty at Versailles. Perhaps he has done
this already. All Germans will believe him--and some Americans.

The German method, the German madness--what a mixture! The method just
grazed making Germany owner of the earth, the madness saved the earth.

With perfect recognition of Belgium's share, of Russia's share, of
France's, Italy's, England's, our own, in winning the war, I believe that

the greatest and mast efficient Ally of all who contributed to Germany's
defeat was her own constant blundering madness. Americans must never

forget either the one or the other, and too many are trying to forget
both.

Germans remain German. An American lady of my acquaintance was about to
climb from Amalfi to Ravello in company with a German lady of her

acquaintance. The German lady had a German Baedeker, the American a
Baedeker in English, published several years apart. The Baedeker in

German recommended a path that went straight up the ascent, the Baedeker
in English a path that went up more gradually around it. "Mine says this

is the best way," said the American. "Mine says straight up is the
best," said the German. "But mine is a later edition," said the American.

"That is not it," explained the German. "It is that we Germans are so
much more clever and agile, that to us is recommended the more dangerous

way while Americans are shown the safe path."
That happened in 1910. That is Kultur. This too is Kultur:

"If Silesia become Polish
Then, oh God, may children perish, like beasts, in their mothers' womb.

Then lame their Polish feet and their hands, oh God!
Let them be crippled and blind their eyes.

Smite them with dumbness and madness, both men and women."
From a Hymn of German hate for the Poles.

Germany remains German; but when next she springs, she will make no
blunders.

Chapter V: The Ancient Grudge
It was in Broad Street, Philadelphia, before we went to war, that I

overheard the foolish--or propagandist--slur upon England in front of
the bulletin board. After we were fighting by England's side for our

existence, you might have supposed such talk would cease. It did not. And
after the Armistice, it continued. On the day we celebrated as "British

Day," a man went through the crowd in Wanamaker's shop, asking, What had
England done in the War, anyhow? Was he a German, or an Irishman, or an

American in pay of Berlin?, I do not know. But this I know: perfectly
good Americans still talk like that. Cowboys in camp do it. Men and women

in Eastern cities, persons with at least the external trappings of
educated intelligence, play into the hands of the Germany of to-morrow,

do their unconscious little bit of harm to the future of freedom and
civilization, by repeating that England "has always been our enemy." Then

they mention the Revolution, the War of 1812, and England's attitude
during our Civil War, just as they invariably mentioned these things in

1917 and 1918, when England was our ally in a struggle [or life, and as
they will be mentioning them in 1940, I presume, if they are still alive

at that time.
Now, the Civil War ended fifty-five years ago, the War of 1812 one

hundred and five, and the Revolution one hundred and thirty-seven.
Suppose, while the Kaiser was butchering Belgium because she barred his

way to that dinner he was going to eat in Paris in October, 1914, that
France had said, "England is my hereditary enemy. Henry the Fifth and the

Duke of Wellington and sundry Plantagenets fought me"; and suppose
England had said, "I don't care much for France. Joan of Arc and Napoleon

and sundry other French fought me"--suppose they had sat nursing their
ancient grudges like that? Well, the Kaiser would have dined in Paris

according to his plan. And next, according to his plan, with the Channel
ports taken he would have dined in London. And finally, according to his

plan, and with the help of his "army of spies" overseas, he would have
dined in New York and the White House. For German madness could not have

defeated Germany's plan of World dominion, if various nations had not got
together and assisted. Other Americans there are, who do not resort to

the Revolution for their grudge, but are in a commercial rage over this
or that: wool, for instance. Let such Americans reflect that commercial

grievances against England can be more readily adjusted than an
absorption of all commerce by Germany can be adjusted. Wool and

everything else will belong to Mathias Erzberger and his breed, if they
carry out their intention. And the way to insure their carrying it out is

to let them split us and England and all their competitors asunder by
their ceaseless and ingeniouspropaganda, which plays upon every

internationalprejudice, historic, commercial, or other, which is
available. After August, 1914, England barred the Kaiser's way to New

York, and in 1917, we found it useful to forget about George the Third
and the Alabama. In 1853 Prussia possessed one ship of war--her first.

In 1918 her submarines were prowling along our coast. For the moment they
are no longer there. For a while they may not be. But do you think

Germany intends that scraps of paper shall be abolished by any Treaty,
even though it contain 80,000 words and a League of Nations? She will

make of that Treaty a whole basket of scraps, if she can, and as soon as
she can. She has said so. Her workingmen are at work, industrious and

content with a quarter the pay for a longer day than anywhere else. Let
those persons who cannot get over George the Third and the Alabama ponder

upon this for a minute or two.
Chapter VI: Who Is Without Sin?

Much else is there that it were well they should ponder, and I am coming
to it presently; but first, one suggestion. Most of us, if we dig back

only fifty or sixty or seventy years, can disinter various relatives over
whose doings we should prefer to glide lightly and in silence.

Do you mean to say that you have none? Nobody stained with any shade of
dishonor? No grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-etc. grandfather

or grandmother who ever made a scandal, broke a heart, or betrayed a
trust? Every man Jack and woman Jill of the lot right back to Adam and

Eve wholly good, honorable, and courageous? How fortunate to be sprung
exclusively from the loins of centuries of angels--and to know all about

them! Consider the hoard of virtue to which you have fallen heir!
But you know very well that this is not so; that every one of us has

every kind of person for an ancestor; that all sorts of virtue and vice,
of heroism and disgrace, are mingled in our blood; that inevitably amidst

the huge herd of our grandsires black sheep as well as white are to be
found.

As it is with men, so it is with nations. Do you imagine that any nation
has a spotless history? Do you think that you can peer into our past,

turn over the back pages of our record, and never come upon a single
blot? Indeed you cannot. And it is better--a great deal better--that you

should be aware of these blots. Such knowledge may enlighten you, may
make you a better American. What we need is to be critics of ourselves,

and this is exactly what we have been taught not to be.
We are quite good enough to look straight at ourselves. Owing to one

thing and another we are cleaner, honester, humaner, and whiter than any
people on the continent of Europe. If any nation on the continent of

Europe has ever behaved with the generosity and magnanimity that we have
shown to Cuba, I have yet to learn of it. They jeered at us about Cuba,

did the Europeans of the continent. Their papers stuck their tongues in
their cheeks. Of course our fine sentiments were all sham, they said. Of

course we intended to swallow Cuba, and never had intended anything else.