The daily banner., 1917-10-15

that when he visited the Emperor IL
May His Imperial Majesty had said
that war was inevitable because OF
conditions In the Balkans.
The Austrian Crown Prince was
III urdered at SaTajevo i'll June; yet
weeks before that the Austrian En-
peror had contided to his Ambassa-
dor To Turkey that war was newt
able.
y stin more remarkable contirma-
ton came to ME from Baron Wan
genheim, the German Ambassador at
Constanlinople. In an outburst Of
enthusiasm after the arrival of the
Cohen and the Breslau in the Dar-
danelles, he having directed their
movements by wireless while they
We're endeavoring to escape from the
British fleet. the German Ambassa-
dor informed me that conference
had been held in Berlin in the early
part Of July, at which the date of
the war was fixed.
This conference was presided over
by the Kaiser; the Baron Wangen-
helm was present to report on condi-
tions in Turkey Moltke, the Chief
of Staff, was there, and so was Grand
were the leaders of German finance,
the directors of the railroads and the
captains of industry whose aid was
essential TO the Kaiser in putting hit
vast military machine into operation.
Each was asked if he was ready for.
war.
All replied in the affirmative eX-
cept the financiers, who insisted that
{rr-n inl
to sell foreign securities and arrange
their loans.
At the time this conference was
held nobody outside the inner cir
cles of the Berlin and Vienna Gov
erments dreamed Of war as a result
of the Sarajevo assassinations. They.
took good care that no suspicion
should be aroused. The Kaiser went
straightway to Norway on his yacht.
The Chancellor left Berlin for a rest.
The diplomatic corps had no intir
nation of the impending calamity,
and the British Ambassador Went
away, leaving the embassy to the
Charges d'Affaires. The same drug
was used in Vienna, and even when
the blow fell the Russian Ambassa-
dor was absent from his post on va
cation.
From the date of this conference
the German fnanciers were busy
with their part while the army
marked time. All the great stock eX-
changes experienced an acute finan-
cial depression, as German-owned
stocks were quietly pushed ito the
market.
In New York, as l found after
ward, there were astonishing slumpS
in quotations Between July 10 and
25, which was two days before the
ultimatum was sent to Serbia, Union
Pacific dropped from l54 "a to
125 IA, Baltimore and Ohio went
from go IA to 7S IA, and United
States Steel slumped with the rail-
road stocks.
No adequate explanation was Of
fered, and in the absence of anything
better there were bitter complaints
against the Simmons-Underwoo tar
iff as the source of all economic evil.
The tariff had as little to do with it
as the Federal Reserve Act, which
was not yet enacted into law. There
was financial depression and a gen
eral decline in market quotations be-
cause the German financiers were
carrying out their part of the Kai-
ser's war plans.
1t was not to me alone that Baron
Wangenheim told the story of this
Berlin conference. Only recently the
Marquis Garroni, the Italian Ambas
sador at Constantinople, announced
that Baron Wangenheim said the
same thing to him. Italy at that time
was member of the Triple Alliance.
Mydiary shows that the converse
tion with the German Ambassador
took place on August 26. This was
about six weeks after the fateful
council in Berlin, in which the Kai-
-e-gay ser gave Civilization ever TO fire and
sword, and all the details of the
meeting were still fresh in Baron
Wangenheim mind.