The Columbus journal., 1909-02-17

| till too late, and then. when her band
that commercial brains were not con-
| fined to America alone. The sleeping
giant had lost commercial supremacy
in a continent which was hers by right
of location and needs, to a race Of in
dustrious workers across the sea.
Nor had Germany neglected her
fight for trade at home. There. too.
she found cyclists, so swollen with
self-sufficiency that by disastrous
tariff methods they had been bested.
England, failing to protect her pro-
ducers had driven her own farmers and
carriers from the field, until. as one dis
gruntled farmer said: You can't pick
up cabbage in stall which don't
bear the words made in Germany"
and if new crown was needed for the
king, Germany would have stood fair
chance of booking the order. In 4
natural revulsion which had reached
fever heat before the Japanese-Ameri
can war broke out. England was try
ing to obstruct this encroachment.
The feeling thus enSendered between
the two nations eliminated in one of
envy on the part of Great Britain and
one of hatred on the part of Germany.
The kaiser, calmly reviewing times
had come to strike.
England. with power sadly dimin-
ished through the loss of her great
feet. and at the mercy of the United
States in her richest colony. stood
open to attack. While she was still
mourning defeat. Germany took eX-
ception to the tariff laws in a very
carefully wcrded message. II was one
that under normal circumstances
would have provoked demands for
apologies, or. in a refusal Of such. al
most instant war. But now the lion
was driven to tenipOriZe. That the
kaiser hoped for an open rupture and
intended to leave no stone unturned
for such an outcome, was demon
strated by his sending more CURLY
worded notes.
The English press retailed these
TO the public. and accused the kaiser
of deliberately plotting war with a
foreign country to Offset the spread of
socialism which threatened him at
home. hoping by combat abroad to re-
unite his own people.
The kaiser demanded an apology
from the British press: but English
men were not accustomed to bending
the knee. even though the lack of fieXi-
bility might cause the loss of life
Lacking nothing in bravery, they re:
luctant!y faced a crisis rather than
brock humiliating domination. Their
answer therefore was beliicose.
Germany at once began an ominous
assembling of her fleets in strategic
waters from which on a moments no
tice they might sail forth. France
stood systematically aloof, hoping per-
haps that when the world had wearied
of fighting she might be in a position
to gain by plunging into the fray.
Alsace Lorraine was still mourned.
and her monument in the Place de Ia
Concorde draped.
Then. at the very moment when it
seemed that England would be conn.,
PEELED to beat back an invading army
from her shores there came an unex-
pected luil. The British press had
been predicting a declaration of war
within q hours. when the change took
place. At the first days delay the /!
we'll informed wondered, and WHOM
two days had passed, and finally three. |
it became certain that some very I'M !
usual event I'D taken place in Ber- |
lin.
Rrmors began to creep to London, |
to Paris. AID soon the whole world |
knew, despite Germaly'S attempts to !