Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-16
KAISER UNSTEADY,
BUT IS YET AFET|CH
Strengthened by President
Wilson'S Intimation That
He Should Be Removed.
NOT RESPECTED BY ARMY
BY HERBERT COREY.

Nothing has SO strengthened the Kali
ser's hand at home as the garbled YER
sions of President wilson's message in
which he indicated that the German
people must change the form of their
government before they can be treat
ed with.
For the moment those versions
garbled, be it remembered--made the
kaiser hero. He repeated the hap
Ply experience OF the crown prince in
good enough, lightweight, feather
headed, negligible quantity. 1t was
hoped that before his father died the
good old German god, having selected
him to reign over the Germans, would
inject some of the qualities of ruler
ship into brain that needed some
thing to keep it from rafting.
Case of Crown Prince.
Then Karl Won Wiegand had most
noffensive interview with the young
ster 1 defy any one to recall today
"a single thing the crown prince said.
Whereupon the British press sustained
n severe attack OF dementia Britannica.
The English editors hoWled SO about
Won Wieeand and the crown prince
that the Germans We're made to be-
lieve the youngster had really said
something of consequence--that. ergo,
he must be a person of consequence.
Even yet the crown prince has hardly
succeeded in living down the accidental
Importance this British hageliaf1on
conferred on him. Only by a course
of the most rigid and answering in
significance has he managed to per-,
suade the Germans that, after all, he
doesn't amount to tinkers well;
known formula.
So it has been with the kaiser The
Germans have been made to believe
that President Wilson had said, in eff
feet. that the Hohenzollerns must go.
The chances are that 1t the Germans
could pension off william and give
him some such purely ornamental po-
sition as that of King George of Eng
land they would do it like a shot.
But no proud and self-respecting peo-s
ple-it is important to get rid of the
idea that the Germans believe them
selves licked-wou1d tamely accept dc
tation by the ruler of another nation
in a matter of this sort.
Hohenzo1lern Family Fetch.
Furthermore. the Hohenzollern fam
lily is "a sort of German fetch.
Pretty nearly every German family of
any consequence has in its possession
some sort of an order signed by the
kaiser. and in which members of the
family were named or We're deeply in
terested. The effect was similar to that
of the ikons which everywhere ap-
peared in Russia bearing the well
known il somewhat muddled features
of the. until recently, car. The per-
sonality of the man was submerged in
the position and the imperial name
The Germans might be content, say
those who watch them from across the
border. not to have another Hohenzol-
lern unless he had some real goods to
show. But they do not propose to be
robbed of their fetch by power from
the outside.
Whatever President Wilson may have
really meant by his statement as to
the need for change in Germany, that
was what the Germans were made to
think he meant. They got their in
formation entirely through the news
agencies of Reuter- and Havas and
the English papers. The Reuter- dis
patches did not quote President Will
told the same may be said of Hayas,
although as to the latter I have not
seen copy of the Wilson dispatch.
The British editors, still inspired by
their hatred of the kaiser, seized on
the Wilson message as a heaven-sent
opportunity to wallop him once more.
A very natural reaction in the German
feeling followed.
"A first step toward getting peace
would be the admission of the United
States papers to Germany" 1 have
been told by Germans and by Ameri-
cans-American born of good Anglo
Saxon blood-who know the situation
inside Germany.
O. S. Papers Kept Out.
These papers, according to the state
ments made by these men, are kept
out of Germany by the allies. I do not
know the truth of this. The definite
statement is made that the German
authorities have never attempted to
prevent the newspapers of the United
States going to Germany, and 7 am in
formed that even today it is possible
to find London papers openly on sale
in Berlin. No doubt the allied authori-
ties had perfectly good military rea-
son for keeping the American papers
out of Germany. But. according to the
men ! am quoting:
II the Germans We're once able to
see Themselves as the outside world
sees them. and were able to UNDER
stand why the United States entered
the war, and that it has no selfish pur-
pose in its activities a movement for
peace might start in Germany at
once"
Won Kissing Defes Kaiser.
This is merely an expression of the
opinion of others and it is not possi-
BILE to submit it to a test of worth.
To return TO the kaiser however. it
seems that he is nowadays what coun-
try people charitably call odd / am
assured by persons who are In a posi-
ton to know that he opposed the
executions of Miss CavelI and Capt.
Fryatt
Il forbid this he wired Won Bis
sing, then in command in Belgium, in
the Caveii case. This would be sheer
bar5arity."
So Won Kissing executed Miss Ca
veil. and four days afterward sent the
kaiser "a note expressing his deem re-
gret that he did not get his orders in
time to stop the execution. The kaiser
knew he was being laughed at. and
wanted to punish Won Kissing. but the
general STAFF would not let him. In the
Fryatt case his prohibition was equally
emphatic, and the staff told him blunt
ly not to bother with things that did
not concern him.
go on being kaiser is the man.
ner in which the staff reply might
have been translated, and let us
alone.
In spite of this leaning toward kind
ness. the unchallenged autocracy which
he had enjoyed for so many wears
swayed him in the recent mutinies in
the German army. The kaiser is said
to have gone almost mad His state
was almost that of an epilepttc for q
time, SO furious was he with these
mutineers who had dared defy him
William, the war lord 1t was the a r
frontIto his Imperial dignity that so