Evening star., 1918-07-25

| see tHe mote IN anOIneTS b eye bu
not the bean in his own! One of thu
bitterest grievances the socialists hae
nurtured for years against the Ho
henzollern regime was the inequalit,
Iof taxation. They were constantly
clamoring for 4 repeal of the law.
which exempt royalty and the no
bility from the payment of taxes, ant
their demands cannot long remain un'
needed. The reform vote and equa
| taxation Is the rallying cry wherever
socialists assemble in Germany; Il
may yet be transformed into battle
cry which will crush junkerism for
ever!.
Ridiculed Art Collectors
AS I have previously mentioned, ht
ridiculed the standing of American
I tiquarians, pointing out that while
they had the money to acquire thu
treasures of the art world, they lack
ed the education and culture to ap
preciate them.
There is Mr.. Morgan with an origi
nal letter of Martin Luther. for which
he paid some $75,80o, l understand,
he declared. What right has Morgan
an American. to retain that letter.
1 man who hasn't the education to ap'
precface its value, but whose dollar:
enabled him to acquire it? That letter
belongs in the Martin Luther Museum
in Wittenberg and 1 am going to ask
! him for it"
Very shortly after that noted that
Morgan had been invited to Kfel to
the kaiser's yacht races. that he had
| donated the Martin Luther letter to
! the kaiser. and that, in return, nc
doubt. he had been decorated with
| the Order of the Black Eagle of the
| second class!
| The kaiser's indignation at the
[ thought that this Martin Luther let
| ter should be in any country but
| Germany is in striking contrast to
| the satisfaction he always derived
astronomical instruments which were
| stolen by the Germans from the wall
| of Peking during the Boxer uprising &,
| and which the kaiser had had in
| stalled in the -orangerfe" at Pots
dam. just back of the palace of Sans
Souci
| The kaiser did not condemn the ac-
| cumulation of millions. in large busi-
| ness enterprises. In fact. he rather
admired the efficiency and success of
our leading manufacturers and
| merchants
In 1915 asked him whether he had
| heard that Mr.. Ford was on his way
over from America in a chartered
ship with a delegation
who, Peace-Fordg' he inquired.
| / told the kaiser what / had read of
the Ford expedition.
How can your country allow man
! like that to do this thing-a man
who has played no part in the poll
| tics Of his own country and is entire
| ly ignorant Of international affairs
a man who, I understand. was former
| ly in the bicycle business and knows
very little outside OF business mat
tiers?
Il haven't the slightest doubt Mr..
Ford is great business man." the
| kaiser went on, land l am sure he
| means all right, but what a mistake it
| is to allow a man SO ignorant of
world affairs to do a ridiculous thing
| like thisY'
/ told the kaiser that it had been
suggested in some of the American
! papers that if Ford really wanted to
! end the war all he had to do was to
! pay Germany s1oo,0oo,oo0 and buy
/ Belgium back.
a! kaiser repeated, and then after a mo
| ments reflection, as though he had
! been turning over some figures In his
mind, NO, Davis, it will cost much
more than that to get Belgium back!
1t occurred to me that If the kaiser
| really meant what he said on tina,
occasion. ali his talk about peace
without annexation" was obviously a
myth and that the only hope Of Bel
GUMS redemption lay in the military
| defeat of Prussia Subsequent devel-
opments amply confirmed that view
Opinion Of Bernstorf.
In the winter of 1916 we were talk
ing of the sentiment IN America and
the conversation turned to vop Bern
| storn
good work in your country" the
kaiser commented. -.
'eWell, your majesty" replied. "it
| is said in America that IL he had not
been such a clever diplomat he would
long ago have been compelled. 70
.sFrom all I hear the kaiser said.
| ''he hasn't had a very easy time of 1t
The American press as a whole has
been conspicuously anti-German, al
| though understand that one of your
newspaper publishers has been friend
| ly to us. Mr.. Hearst. for instance. has
helped our cause very much in your
| country. He has been telling the
| truth about affairs, which is more
| than most of the other papers have
been doing"
Just before the King of Greece alb
dicated the kaiser referred to the
| attitude of the American press again
The way the American newspa-
| pers and the press Of the allied coun-
| tries generally are presenting the
Grecian situation to the world Is alb
| solutely false and disgrace!" he de-
clared, bitterly. They are entirely
| misrepresenting the facts. Mr.. Hears,
| who has revealed the real conditions
and told the truth about them. My
/ wonder what the people have to say
| now that Mr.. Hearst has finally ex-
posed the whole thing!" 1t was only
| short time afterward that the king
1 t,-1S %aI nd fcfo L.
ably which papers had correctly in
| terpreted the trend of Grecian poll
| tics
The kaiser spoke to me many times
about the writings of William Bayard
Hale.
"Have you been following Hale,s
articlesT he inquired. What he is
writing about about the war il excel
| lent and Is really the best material
published He voices my sentiments
exactly, and Il would be well for
every American to follow this writsrs
I had to confess that there was one
American at least who was not only
not following Ha1e's writings, but
had never heard of the writer. and
the Kaiser seemed to be somewhas
displeaeed- n
subsequently, and in the meanwhile
had Ascertained that the man in ques-
tion was the representative in Berlin
Of the Hearst newspapers, and etb-
sequently learned that he had phb-
lished a book called american Rights
and British Pretensions at Sea" which
explained at once to me why the
kaiser was so enthusiastic about him.
Paid Respects to Mr.. Schvab.
In the course Of one Of our many
conversations on the subject Of Amer
lean munitions, the kaiser paid his
lrespects to Nj. schwah.