The Washington herald., 1917-08-20
BY HAROLD BRIGHOUsE


London, Aug 19-There is a legend
which the English tell their children
of a long dead English King, whose
name was Canute. He was a wise
King. but at his court were many
courtiers and the courtiers imagined
that 1t pleased Canute to hear them
flatter him.
They told him that he was wise be-
ycnd all other men and great beyond
all othe.' Kings, and that there were
no bounds to be set to the power at
his command. and they said these
things so often that the King began
almost to believe that they were true
The courtiers had called him lord OF
earth and sky So earnestly that some
times he thought his power was in
finite. If you. great King" they
said, were TO command the tide to
stand still, the tide would never dare
to rise"
At first King Canute smiled, without
belief. Then as day by day they fat
tered him. he smiled less and began
to believe, till soon he did not smile
at them but utterly believed, and in
the end his faith in his power became
SO great that he bade them put his
throne out on the sands when the
tide was low and, with his Courtiers
around him, he commanded tie sea to
be still.
But the tide rose and wet his roya.
feet. Again, and now with anger. he
ordered it to stand still, and the tide
did not stand still, but wet his royal
knees, and the courtiers who were on
foot, not raised on the throne, were
wet to their middles and their gor-
oil anl tn a
and the tide still rose.
They carried the throne to the shore
and Canute remembered his wisdom
and dismissed his flatterers and ruled
England soberly and well to the end
of his days.
Kaiser Is Like Canute
That is the legend of the old Eng
i3h King. In Germany, there is a
Kaiser to whom the gods at birth
save many gifts, but he, like Canute,
was beset with fiatterers. They called
him All-Highest. War-Lord, King of
Battles. Supreme. and made long pre-
parations for forty years, for the
battle to which they meant to lead
their Kaiser.
They did not put his throne on the
sand, but in a wall of steel. They
made great guns and ceaselessly
through all those years they trained
his subjects till the land was noisy
with the feet of tramping men. And
the noise rose to the ears of the
Kaiser like incense to the nostrils,
and he believed, like Canute before
him, that his greatness was supreme.
and that the world should bow before
the majesty OF the Kaiser. and his
III H.
idends the Kaiser shared.
First the old world should bend
beneath the yoke and, that subdued,
the new world across the sea,
whittier already he had sent thou
sands of his subjects to spy out the
promised land. In North America
they mingled with the Americans;
in South America they held aloof
tory insolently, openly boasting of
the day when all Brazil should fall
into the Kaiser's hands.
Finds Excuse for War.
And on the day when his flatterers
assured him that his legions were
prepared, he found excuse to make
war. There was a little country
through which his troops might quiet
ly reach their prey, and the Kaiser
was bound in honor by treaty TO
guarantee protection to its people
But the men who wished to rule the
world thought that a treaty did not
court. 1t was a necessity of war" to
march through that unoffending coun-
try, and the Kaiser gave the word
to march. And when the country
made protest. his armies ravished it,
laid 1t waste with sullen, scientific
zeal to show the world what hap
pened to those who dared oppose the
Kaiser's will. The steel wall of the
Kaiser grew and held within it con-
quered territory and starving peoples
and graves; graves everywhere.
But beyond the wall, a tide arose
and beat against it. The wall no
longer grew. The growth was with
the tide. Wave after wave it came;
with strength added to strength as
1t gathered force from far. News
OF the crimes of the Kaiser within
his wall came to the world, and with
each crime the tide swelled high with
anger.
Not now does the Kaiser dream of
world enchained, but cries to his
people, Defend yourselves against the
asgressor"-which is as If burglar
caugth in the act were to accuse his
captor of vindictiveness for catching
him. The tide has reached Kaiser
Canute's feet. Soon it will wet his
august knees. Like Canute, he orders
1t to rise no more. and it continues
to rise.
1t Is the tide Of Justice, the free