Evening star., 1915-03-06
Marked Lack of Feeling in
Berlin Due to That One Thing,
Says Correspondent.
NEXT WAR TO INVOLVE U. S.,
is BELIEF OF TEUTONS
'SWill You Want Germany to Sell
Arms to JapanW
They Ask.
nonvrirbt 1915. by Herbert Corey. E,

Copyright, 1915, by Herbert Corey.)
BERLIN, February 16.-Four soldiers
walked into the hotel and pumped
themselves in the big chairs. They
had just returned from the front, or
furlough or business. No one asked
why After the preliminaries of con-
versation had been disposed of some
one asked that question which is near
est to every German heart today:
How are things at the front?"
mot SO good" said one fthe four
"On our part of the line. at least.
cannot speak for the rest of It,"
why? What's the matter?"
THE losses are heavier said the
spokesman, calmly. 1.-The French are
using American ammunition now. TheiI
shells explode where they want them
to. Their bullets carry up
He was quite dispassionate about it
He was obviously merely stating q
fact He wasn't angry or DISCOURAGED
when one of those in the group growled
out something that was certainly not
complimentary to Americans. 1t ap-
parently had not occurred to him to
blame the United States for this death.
dealing excellence. He was introduced
to a group of Americans and said he
was delighted to meet them. He looked
as though he meant it. In ten minutes
he was talking to them of mutual ac-
quaintances in London and New York
There seemed no hostility to the United
States in him.
Cause of Unfriendliness.
But in that statement-which is a
perfectly true one, and is being re-
10 nf h
every soldier who comes back from the
fronts the cause of the marked lack
of friendliness for the United States
and, to some extent, for America ms
which one feels in Germany today. Most
Germans will admit that the United
States has a perfect legal right to sell
arms to any belligerent nation. They
concede that in other wars Germany
quite openly sold to any nation that
could pay. The best mortarS the Rus
slams are now using were made by
krupp.
But-what weight has that sort of .
fact against this sort of Il fact?
my son is dead. An American bul-
let killed him"
Grief cannot be argued away. Re
sentiment for the loss of a loved one
cannot be checked by a legal brief. In
these early days of friction between the
two nations one remarkable thing to me
is that so little OF the ndllOHdI leeliHe
is shown to the Individual American
here. I have personally met with moth
ing but courtesy and helpfulness. al
though there have been times when
felt the courtesy was d cold formal1ty
Americans often found themselves po-
litely avoided, but there were few cases
of positive rudeneSs.
When Gerard Was Insulted.
you're English" some one shouted at
Ambassador Gerard and his party in
the Wintergarten one night. Their con-
,ersation had been overheard.
Pardon me-" said Mr.. Gerard, I'VE are
Americans"
lish," was the retort.
Men began to gather around and ask
questions and vociferate. 1t had the
makings of very pretty riot. New
York knows what often follows fight
in a theater. That's panic. If the crowd
had been really ill-disposed anything
might have happened, But the German
crowd, resenting as it does the Ameri-
can sale of arms, still has a friendly
spot in it's heart for Americans. The
brawlers were silenced by those who
sat nearby. No harm had been done.
But such incidents are increasing in
frequency In the same theater THE
Star Spangled Banner" had been ap-
plauded the week before.
"Where's the American ffag?" some
one asked in a barroom in which the
flags of the neutral nations are dis
played.
''Where it ought to be-" was the reply.