Part 14 (1/2)
Like most Germans of the ruling cla.s.s, ambition is his only pa.s.sion.
These Spartans do not care either for money or for the luxury which it brings. Their life is on very simple lines, both in the Army and Navy, in order that the officers shall not vie with one another in expenditure, and in order that the poorer officers and their wives shall not be subject to the humiliation which would be caused if they had to live in constant contact with brother officers living on a more luxurious footing.
Von Tirpitz' ambition undoubtedly led him to consider himself as a promising candidate for Bethmann-Hollweg's shoes. The whole submarine issue, therefore, became not only a question of military expediency and a question for the Foreign Office to decide in connection with the relations of America to Germany, but also a question of internal politics, a means of forcing the Chancellor out of office. The advocates for the ruthless war were drawn from the Navy and from the Army, and those who believed in the use of any means of offence against their enemies and particularly in the use of any means that would stop the s.h.i.+pment of munitions of war to the Allies. The Army and the Navy were joined by the Conservatives and by all those who hoped for the fall of the Chancellor. The conservative newspapers, and even the Roman Catholic newspapers were violent in their call for ruthless submarine war as well as violent in their denunciations of the United States of America.
American pa.s.sengers on merchant s.h.i.+ps of the enemy were called _Schutzengel_ (guardian angels), and caricatures were published, such as one which showed the mate reporting to the Captain of an English boat that everything was in readiness for sailing and the Captain's inquiry, ”Are you sure that the American _Schutzengel_ is on board?” The numerous notes sent by America to Germany also formed a frequent subject of caricature and I remember particularly one quite clever one in the paper called _Brummer_, representing the celebrations in a German port on the arrival of the one hundredth note from America when the Mayor of the town and the military, flower girls and singing societies and _Turnverein_ were drawn up in welcoming array.
The liberal papers were inclined to support the Chancellor in his apparent intention to avoid an open break with America. But even the liberal papers were not very strong in their stand.
The military, of course, absolutely despised America and claimed that America could do no more harm by declaring war than it was doing then to Germany; and that possibly the war preparations of America might cut down the amount of the munitions available for export to the enemies of the Empire. As to anything that America could do in a military way, the Navy and the Army were unanimous in saying that as a military or naval factor the United States might be considered as less than nothing. This was the situation when the last _Suss.e.x_ Note of America brought matters to a crisis, and even the crisis itself was considered a farce as it had been simmering for so long a period.
I arranged that Colonel House should have an interview with the Chancellor at this time, and after dinner one night he had a long talk with the Chancellor in which the dangers of the situation were pointed out.
With this arrival of the last American _Suss.e.x_ Note, I felt that the situation was almost hopeless; that this question which had dragged along for so long must now inevitably lead to a break of relations and possibly to war. Von Jagow had the same idea and said that it was ”fate,” and that there was nothing more to be done. I myself felt that nothing could alter public opinion in Germany; that in spite of von Tirpitz' fall, which had taken place some time before, the advocates of ruthless submarine warfare would win, and that to satisfy them Germany would risk a break with America.
I was sitting in my office in a rather dazed and despairing state when Professor Ludwig Stein, proprietor of a magazine called _North_and_South_ and a writer of special articles on Germany's foreign relations for the _Vossische_Zeitung_, under the name of ”Diplomaticus,” called to see me.
He informed me that he thought the situation was not yet hopeless, that there was still a large party of reasonable men in Germany and that he thought much good could be done if I should go to the great general headquarters and have a talk with the Kaiser, who, he informed me, was reported to be against a break.
I told Dr. Stein that, of course, I was perfectly willing to go if there was the slightest chance of preventing war; and I also told the Chancellor that if he was going to decide this question in favor of peace it would be possibly easier for him if the decision was arrived at under the protection, as it were, of the Emperor; or that, if the decision lay with the Emperor, I might possibly be able to help in convincing him if I had an opportunity to lay the American side of the case before him. I said, moreover, that I was ready at any time on short notice to proceed to the Emperor's headquarters.
Dr. Hecksher, a member of the Reichstag, who must be cla.s.sed among the reasonable men of Germany, also advocated my speaking directly to the Kaiser.
CHAPTER XIII
MAINLY COMMERCIAL
Nothing surprised me more, as the war developed, than the discovery of the great variety and amount of goods exported from Germany to the United States.
Goods sent from the United States to Germany are mainly prime materials: approximately one hundred and sixty million dollars a year of cotton; seventy-five million dollars of copper; fifteen millions of wheat; twenty millions of animal fats; ten millions of mineral oil and a large amount of vegetable oil. Of course, the amount of wheat is especially variable. Some manufactured goods from America also find their way to Germany to the extent of perhaps seventy millions a year, comprising machinery such as typewriters and a miscellaneous line of machinery and manufactures.
The princ.i.p.al exports from Germany to America consist of dye stuffs and chemical dyes, toys, underwear, surgical instruments, cutlery, stockings, knit goods, etc., and a raw material called potash, also known as kali. The last is a mineral found nowhere in the world except in Germany and a few places in Austria. Potash is essential to the manufacture of many fertilizers, fertilizer being composed as a rule of potash, phosphates and nitrates.
The nitrates in past years have been exported to all countries from Chile. Phosphate rock is mined in South Carolina and Florida and several other places in the world. Curiously enough, both nitrates and potash are essential ingredients also of explosives used in war. Since the war, the German supply from Chile was cut off; but the Germans, following a system used in Norway for many years before the war, established great electrical plants for the extraction of nitrates from the atmosphere. Since the war, American agriculture has suffered for want of potash and German agriculture has suffered for want of phosphates, possibly of nitrates also; because I doubt whether sufficient nitrogen is extracted from the air in Germany to provide for more than the needs of the explosive industry.
The dyestuff industry had been developed to such a point in Germany that Germany supplied the whole world. In the first months of the war some enterprising Americans, headed by Herman Metz, chartered a boat, called _The_Matanzas_, and sent it to Rotterdam where it was loaded with a cargo of German dyestuffs. Th boat sailed under the American flag and was not interfered with by the English. Later on the German Department of the Interior, at whose head was Delbruck, refused to allow dyestuffs to leave Germany except in exchange for cotton, and, finally, the export of dyestuffs from Germany ceased and other countries were compelled to take up the question of manufacture. This state of affairs may lead to the establishment of the industry permanently in the United States, although that industry will require protection for some years, as, undoubtedly, Germany in her desperate effort to regain a monopoly of this trade will be ready to spend enormous sums in order to undersell the American manufacturers and drive them out of business.
The commercial submarines, _Deutschland_ and _Bremen_, were to a great extent built with money furnished by the dyestuff manufacturers, who hoped that by sending dyestuffs in this way to America they could prevent the development of the industry there.
I had many negotiations with the Foreign Office with reference to this question of dyestuffs.
The export of toys from Germany to the United States forms a large item in the bill which we pay annually to Germany. Many of these toys are manufactured by the people in their own homes in the picturesque district known as the Black Forest. Of course, the war cut off, after a time, the export of toys from Germany; and the American child, having in the meantime learned to be satisfied with some other article, his little brother will demand this very article next Christmas, and thus, after the war, Germany will find that much of this trade has been permanently lost.
Just as the textile trade of the United States was dependent upon the German dyestuffs for colours, so the sugar beet growers of America were dependent upon Germany for their seed. I succeeded, with the able a.s.sistance of the consul at Magdeburg and Mr. Winslow of my staff, in getting s.h.i.+pments of beet seed out of Germany. I have heard since that these industries too, are being developed in America, and seed obtained from other countries, such as Russia.
Another commodity upon which a great industry in the United States and Mexico depends is cyanide. The discovery of the cyanide process of treating gold and silver ores permitted the exploitation of many mines which could not be worked under the older methods.
At the beginning of the war there was a small manufactory of cyanide owned by Germans at Perth Amboy and Niagara Falls, but most of the cyanide used was imported from Germany. The American German Company and the companies manufacturing in Germany and in England all operated under the same patents, the English and German companies having working agreements as to the distribution of business throughout the world.
The German Vice-Chancellor and head of the Department of the Interior, Delbruck, put an export prohibition on cyanide early in the war; and most pigheadedly and obstinately claimed that cyanide was manufactured nowhere but in Germany, and that, therefore, if he allowed cyanide to leave Germany for the United States or Mexico the English would capture it and would use it to work South African mines, thus adding to the stock of gold and power in war of the British Empire. It was a long time before the German manufacturers and I could convince this gentleman that cyanide sufficient to supply all the British mines was manufactured near Glasgow, Scotland. He then reluctantly gave a permit for the export of a thousand tons of cyanide; and its arrival in the United States permitted many mines there and in Mexico to continue operations, and saved many persons from being thrown out of employment. When Delbruck finally gave a permit for the export of four thousand tons more of cyanide, the psychological moment had pa.s.sed and we could not obtain through our State Department a pa.s.s from the British.
I am convinced that Delbruck made a great tactical mistake on behalf of the German Government when he imposed this prohibition against export of goods to America. Many manufacturers of textiles, the users of dyestuffs, medicines, seeds and chemicals in all forms, were clamouring for certain goods and chemicals from Germany. But it was the prohibition against export by the Germans which prevented their receiving these goods. If it had been the British blockade alone a cry might have arisen in the United States against this blockade which might have materially changed the international situation.