Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-22

The follotcilo Characterization Of the German
Kaiser is taken from an article in the Boston
Transcript bv william Roscoe Thayer, author Of
"Gcrmary rorSus CiriHsation":
A LITTLE while ago our part of the world
"A was amused to learn that a prize trophy
given by the German Emperor to the WIN
ner Of yacht race before the war, ana
supposed to be worth S50O0--surely very
modest sum for monarch Of his munih-
cence-was sold and melted down as con-
tribution to the Red Cross fund. Instead
of being of precious metal, as was supposed
il turned out to be or pewter, plated ana
worth only $40. Doubtless many other OF
the grandiose benefactions which the KAISER
,avished on an unwilling world were also
fakes, His statue of Frederick the Great
for instance, which he insisted upon dumping
OF the UnSted States-an act at when ''nn
Hay who was then our Secretary OF s'ate'
groan.d-may not be bronze at all. and the
semibarharic facsimiles Of the medieval art
works which he presented to the Germanic
Museum Mt Harvard might. IL examine1 be
worth only S400 instead of the adVer''ssu
$50. 000 ,-. .....
Tut | am not concerned with these cheap
Is and vulgar evidences of imperial mean
ness I cite them only as indications OF the
Eaiser's false and braggart nature. ne e
man who stoops TO make coun'eIi.n
will not stop there, william IL, WIZ ,,,,,a
a,uays thought Americans very guiiioie'
honed 10 fool the American yachtsmen INTO
admiring him for his $4,000 trophy NOW
they and the world laugh at him as pewter
monarch. ,,...o,,s-n
character must have suspected Tor Years
mast that there was q great deal OF pew.ei
in SO boastful a person. coasters anu pu,
lies don't ring true; there is too 49, ~.
pewter in them TO ring at all we are no'
.urnrIsed therefore, to find thar the nei
man Kaiser is after all only pewter va Sa
no,eon As a youth, he had the ambition
10 surpass Napoleon the Great, po'n as
general and as the founder OF worlo ein
pire Ever since he came TO tne ,".pmv .,nv
thirty years ago he has boasted OF my
arn,y 'iny soldiers" my invinciblllty'
wben In truth he inherited the army from
Won Moltke and other men OF reai ni'ta,s
| knowledge and achievement. every year ne ne
| held grand maneuvers, which were -
nIanped that they eliminated In tremenu-
nus cavalry charge, led by the Kaiser, VINO
| of course, easily crushed mis- imae"asS ~
| Moments. But the military system or GER
MANY was carefully worked out by the Ssn,
| araI STAFF who saw to every detail ana
| shansd every policy. lie has no more right
70 the credit OF having produced the Ger
| man army than the president OF steainsn'p
company would have to claim that ne IN
! vented the machinery that ran ms s'ip'
| NyOW the real Napoleon, the sort OF man
| N whom his pewter Prussian mimic would
| like the world TO take him for rose from
| The ranks learned how TO control ana leau
| men himself invented new forms or STRAIT
| egv elaborated a military system, and was
| himself the master to whom the members OF
| his staff had to 60 to school. what Napo-
| ,son achieved, he did himself Circun
| stances favored him, II you WILL but the
| sIgn Of the great man is to know when CIR
| cumstances are favorable, and TO make them
seem to do his bidding.
| In fairness, we admit that such an origin
and bringing up as william II had would
| he detrimental to the development of any
sreat man, above all to a great commander
| Hannibal Caesar and Napoleon In theii
youth were not warped by the pedantries
barbaric traditions. insufferable adulatlons
| and Incentives to megalomania which FED
| the young vuture in the Hohenzollern nest
| At the age when the adolescent william
was playing the Kriegspiel and dreaming o
being another and greater Napoleon. tn,
real Napoleon was leading a desperate
| charge over the bridge of Lodi. .risklng hi,
| own life and the fortunes Of his country a
| Arcola and smashing the bespanged mar
| shals OF Austria wherever he met them.
NEITHER then in his third decade nor Al
| IN any time since, SO far as the record,
chow, has the pewter Napoleon OF Prussi,
come within range Of bullet or shell. 70