When the whole of one nation is represented as hating the whole of another nation it is well to suspect that the statement is false, or else that there has been a vast amount of falsehood employed in achieving this result. To one who likes to believe that the world is growing better as the masses of people become more educated, there are few phenomena more perplexing, not to say depressing, than to note within the last generation a growth of such bitterness between nations as at any moment may produce war. The newspapers, to whom we look for faithful reports on passing events, find it apparently more easy to stimulate suspicion, jealousy and dislike, than to educate their readers and correct prejudice. politicians, on both sides of the Atlantic, are inclined to treat the Press with dangerous deference. No doubt many newspapers are leaders and educators of public opinion-the few organs of the thinking minority. But those who know their subject are equally aware that in the great majority of cases the newspaper is established and managed with no more regard for moral sentiment than a soap factory or a steamship company. The soap man, no doubt, rejoices in the purifying influences of his produce; and the shipping man delights in spreading his national flag in distant seas, but neither are em

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barked on their venture with aims more definite or exalted than dividing handsomely among the shareholders.

Is it not curious that while that peculiar form of patriotism known as Jingoism is essentially a product of the Press, the newspapers of Berlin, New York and London are shared, owned and managed mainly by people of an alien race, whose private point of view is that of the cash-box, and who inflame popular passion in print with as little concern for consequences as the postman who brings a death message.

Early this spring, while making a walking trip through Germany, it was not my fortune to meet with any discourtesy such as should have happened, according to the Press. From my experience of the individual German, he is courteous to the individual stranger, unless that stranger takes the first step towards a quarrel. In these times it was my concern to learn German thoughts-not to ventilate my own— and on the all-absorbing subject of the Boer war I found no reticence. Amongst all classes, and in pretty much every part of Germany, the same feeling prevails towards England, and that feeling is one which would make a war at any moment, if not popular, at least possible.

On all sides I found but one view in regard to the Boer war-that England

was totally in the wrong, and the Boers as completely in the right. Few of my acquaintances have written more than I have on the virtues of the Boers in general, and I have, not minced my words when referring to that illegal and ill-timed expedition of Dr. Jameson in 1896.

But when I heard my German friends talk on the subject, I stood amazed at the statements they made, and I begged to know where they had picked up their alleged information. The answer was always the same from the papers. To the German of to-day Paul Kruger is another William Tell-a martyr in the holy cause of Liberty; the British are the tyrants, who, for the mere love of gold, are seeking to trample a noble people from the face of the earth.

When I protest to these indignant friends that England gives the Boers in Natal and at the Cape more liberty than Paul Kruger gives to his fellowBoers from other parts of South Africa, they look at me incredulously. They have been taught otherwise, and besides I am disturbing a deep-rooted prejudice which harmonizes with several other preconceptions regarding Great Britain. For instance, it is a pet idea with most Germans that in some ethnological manner the Transvaal may become the nucleus of a Teutonic state which in time may be absorbed by a combination of German East and West Africa. The Boer talks a patois not far removed from Mecklenburg Platt Deutsch, and when Paul Kruger first met Bismarck they are Isaid to have conversed in that jargon. I doubt whether they ever got beyond beer and tobacco with their combination, but for political purposes the interview was important; for ever since, German colonial theorists have hugged the delusion that because Kruger hates England, therefore Boers in general welcome a coalition with the Black Eagle. The Boers have done little to

encourage this view, excepting to make use of Germans, to the same extent as they have of Irishmen, or any other people who would acept money and shoulder a rifle.

When the Emperor despatched his message of sympathy with Kruger in January of 1896, there was much surprise and some anger felt in Liberal German circles that so important a state document should have left Germany without the countersign of the constitutional adviser of the Crown, Prince Hohenlohe. It was felt that the Imperial Constitution became little more than a piece of waste paper, if messages meaning peace or war could emanate at the caprice of the Crown, and become precedents for future sovereigns less gifted in statecraft than the present Emperor. On the day of that famous despatch I happened to be in Berlin at the same table with two members of the Cabinet, and I ventured to ask their opinion on this message. Both together raised their eyes and hands to heaven, and almost in the same breath ejaculated, sorrowfully: "But how could he do such a thing!" That was the private opinion of competent Germans then. Yet in public, the official papers led the way in discovering that the message to Kruger was eminently wise, and the unconstitutional phase of it was quite lost sight of in the general belief that henceforth the Boers would regard Germany as their only friend, and would show their gratitude by assisting in hoisting the German flag in neighboring territory.

All this sounds ridiculous enough now, but there is nothing more dangerous to the peace of the world than the colonial conclusions of profoundly learned professors who travel over the African map with a pair of compasses and a column of statistics.

Another widely accepted notion in Germany is that India is groaning un

der the British yoke, and that the famines in that great country are in some way the product of British cruelty. Now, as a matter of fact, no nation in the history of the world has ever shown towards inferior races so much magnanimity-I might say maudlin sentimentality-as England. An American blushes when he reflects how far behind England lags Puritan Uncle Sam, for even Canada manages her natives better than does the United States. No dispassionate traveller has returned from India without a tribute of grateful acknowledgment for what British statesmanship has done to elevate India morally as well as materially.

Yet I read the German papers in vain to discover a generous word on this subject. Not long ago, the chief comic paper of Germany, which corresponds to the London Punch, represented the Queen of England, gorged with champagne and rich food, looking contemptuously upon some starving Indian subjects, and the text informed the reader that this was British rule for India. We smile, because we know it is caricature. The German who has not travelled, sees in this picture a grim reality-nor does he reflect that this gross insult is directed against the mother of their late Empress, the grandmother of William II; a lady of whom anything might be uttered rather than that she was lacking in womanly sympathy for those in distress.

The Germans whom I have met in distant parts of the world hold their own with the best, as progressive, enlightened, broad-minded colonists or citizens. Throughout the United States Germans are welcomed to citizenship, for they develop in that climate a commercial energy coupled with civic qualities which awaken the respect of everyone. The Yankee shares all he has ungrudgingly with those who come to him seeking work. In Hong Kong I found German merchants in the di

rectorate of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank; at Cape Town I found a German President of the Chamber of Commerce. Germans, English and Americans mingle freely and smoothly in social organizations the whole world over that is to say, everywhere outside of Germany. In the different ports of the Far East, I met many Germans who spoke with pride of Kiao Chow as a monument to their country's military glory, but I could find few, if any, who desired to colonize there. They preferred Hong Kong liberty to Kiao Chow glory. On the occasion of my visit I found 1,500 Germans in Government uniform as against five civilians, that in itself was enough to kill the enthusiasm of the most ardent colonist.

In German East Africa, to say nothing of West Africa, the colonization is much the same. Those countries are apparently run in the interests of officials, and colonists must come cap in hand for the privilege of adding to the national wealth. After the Jameson Raid some Boers trekked into German West Africa, but soon returned discouraged by the attitude of the Imperial officials. Though I heard this on the spot at the time, I was inclined to doubt the fact until quite recently, when it was made public by a former Governor of West Africa, Major von François, who argued that the Boers were undesirable as colonists, because they insisted upon using their own language, and consequently might some day suppress the little German now talked there. When I last analyzed statistics on this subject there was exactly one German to every thousand miles of colonial territory. To-day I imagine that there are even fewer Germans to the square mile.

Now, let us ask ourselves whence has sprung this change of feeling towards England. We know that for more than a century England has been the refuge

of oppressed Germans; and that in later times Germans by the thousands have found a home and a good living amongst Englishmen. When Prussia rose in arms against Napoleon in 1813 many of her volunteers marched to Leipzig in British uniforms, armed with British muskets, and supported by British contributions. The venerable Emperor William took refuge in London from the mob which threatened him in Berlin in 1848, and we have yet to learn of any time when Germans in England were ever molested. Whence then this sudden burst of anger-this violent sympathy for the enemy? Germans tell me that they take sides with the Boers because they are weaker. But the wrong side is frequently the weaker!

In 1864 Prussia absorbed a weaker body of people on her Danish frontier, and to-day those people are persecuted because they insist on cultivating the speech their mothers taught them. They are weaker than the Boers, and vastly more clean in personal appearance. But I hear no great outcry on their behalf,-at least not in Berlin. There are many French on the Western frontier of Germany who regard themselves as oppressed because they are not allowed to learn their native tongue in the common schools. Many of these French were incorporated after the war of 1870, some were annexed in 1814, and they remain French to this day. Are they not weak enough to enlist German sympathy? Contrast this with England's behavior towards the French in Canada. And what can we say of the large body of Poles who plead in vain for the right to remain true to their national ideals? They are weak and dismembered, yet keep alive at the hearthstone the feelings of patriotic aspiration which the Prussian police prevent them from manifesting in public. Some of my German friends answer me much as some English

do in regard to incorporating the Transvaal: "It's good for them; we Germans improve the Frenchman, the Dane and the Pole by compelling him to become German; we raise him to a higher level."

Let us pass on, then, to another view of the case.

In Russia is a small nation of Finns, a clean, well-educated, enterprising, thrifty, Protestant people. To this nation Russia promised local self-government, on condition that it came under Russia's suzerainty. That was in 1808. Loyally have the Finns kept their word. Never has a rebellious movement started there. Finns have manned the Imperial Navy; indeed, there are few ports in the world that do not know him as the best of sailors. Has any Finn ever suggested that they build forts or make armaments against Russia. Has any Finn suggested measures that would nullify the compact made in 1808? Yet the present Czar, in a whim, orders Finland to surrender her self-government, and to submit to the degradation of being ruled like the ninety-nine million serfs making up the multiplied misery of that vast flat of sad, gray monotone, ironically called Holy Russia. Is not Finland weak enough to excite the generous wrath of the whole German people? Does the German Government talk of interference? To be sure, a few leaders, like Dr. Barth and Professor Delbrück raised their voices, but there the matter ended. Yet Finland is on the Baltic, much nearer to Berlin than Pretoria.

Or must we take a case even more flagrant? There is a strip of territory between St. Petersburg and Prussia, called the Baltic Provinces. This was first explored, conquered and settled by Germans. The people of this country are Protestants; they had excellent German schools and a University at Dorpat, which ranked with Heidelberg

and Bonn as a nursery of German science. About ten years ago the late Russian Czar determined to Russify this German land; that is to say, to force the people to talk in Russian, and say their prayers according to the

Greek forms. Russian soldiers took charge of Dorpat University, German Professors were driven away, and Greek Priests commenced an active proselytizing crusade, suggesting Spanish methods in the days of Pizarro and Cortez. Soon after William II came to the throne (1888) the persecution of Germans by Russians was at its height. It has gone on ever since. The wildest English Jingo has not dreamed of treating Transvaal Boers as the Russian Government treated, and continues to treat, the Germans within her dominions. Then was the time for Germany to have shown that zeal for the weaker side which now shines so luridly in favor of the Boers. That was a splendid opportunity-especially as Russia was then very backward in her military preparations.

In 1884 Bismarck launched Germany upon her career as a colonial power. Carl Peters and Wissman and other enterprising explorers soon made all the preliminary treaties with black potentates, and English good nature did the rest. Bismarck subsequently pretended that he never believed in Colonies anyway, and was pushed into it by the clamor of those who did. This is the first instance of Bismarck ever having pleaded popular clamor as the reason for his action. However, Germany found herself suddenly the mistress of a million square miles of very hot and moist land, scattered in many undesirable portions of the globe, while at home she developed at the same time a large number of so-called "Colonial Societies," mostly conducted by people far from the sea, who held learned lectures on the habits of strange savages. The Government organized with

offices for the administration of these new German subjects and black savages, who, up to that time, had prowled about naked and slept in the tops of cocoanut trees, were suddenly astonished by the policeman from Berlin ordering them to come down and pay an income-tax! Little by little the Colonial Societies of Germany, and even the Government itself, began to realize that the mere running up of German flags, while it looked encouraging on the school maps, did not materially help German trade, or divert many emigrants from the English or American ports.

The present German Emperor was the first to take in the situation, and immediately set about building up a strong navy. With his accession new life entered the Colonial Department of the Empire, and new ambitions animated every German who looked to the sea as the new highway of German expansion. From being the most unpopular of Princes, when he ascended the throne, he soon convinced men of all parties that in him they had a leader, not merely competent to understand the needs of the German at home, but even more keen to defend his movements when seeking markets abroad.

As we know, the German Press is largely official, directly or indirectlythat is to say, under the direct or indirect influence of the Government. There are special officials who busy themselves with providing for the newspapers articles agreeable to the Government. When Government requires a new navy, it is the business of the official press to make the people feel that German interests are threatened by some power having a larger navy. Hence a campaign of press articles directly calculated to make simple Germans believe that England stands in the way of German progress, and