Metropolis weekly gazette. (Metropolis, Ill.) 1???-19??, 1918-07-26

1.-THE United States must be taken
down 4 peg. America is growing too
presumptuous. She is obtaining too
much of the worlds trade. She is in
terfering with Germany's commerce in
foreign lands. and piling up too much
wealth. Sooner or later We will have
to show her with the sword the might
of Germany, and teach her not to in
terfere with our commercial develop
ment."
How many American tourists have
heard This kind of talk in Germany
They heard it from al kinds Of peo-
pie; from diplomats. from merchants,
from bankers, from professors in the
universities. and from the man in the
street. Yet, in years gone b. they
paid no attention 10 il; saw no German
menace. They merely puffed ont their
chests with pride at the thought Of
what great nation they represented,
and dismissed the German threats as
idle boasts.
Designs Hard TO Believe.
IT WIS inconeeiyable to them that
sane people of a civilized nation could
actually think of taking UP the
sword just because another nation
was showing some ability in capturing
part OF the trade of foreign
lands They could not believe that the
German government actually had in
contemplation a plan for making war
on the United States, taking away Il
large portion of its wealth in the form
IF indemnties, and so gripping il that
It would no longer menace Germany's
world supremacy.
Such tourist was Prof. Albion
W. Small, head of the department of
sociology Of the University Of Chi
cago Professor Small knew Germany
as we'll as an American could. He
was educated in a German university.
He married a German woman; he
loved the German poets and the Ger
man philosophy; he had spent years
among the German people. Yet he be-
came convinced. after q time, that
Germany was actually planning blow
at the United States. He exposed the
plan In 1903-five years after the Span
ish-American war. yet he was given lit
tie credence in this country.
Tells of His Experiences.
Professor Small tells of his expert
enccs and conclusions in pamphlet
entitled: "Americans and the World
Crisis" issued as No. . in the series
of University of Chicago War Papers,
as follows:
"In the summer of 1908 | was in
Germany on business which gave me
the occasion to sample the opinions
about our country of more different
classes Of Germans than had ever in
terviewed before The itinerary sched-
uled stops at Cologne. Lucerne, Vienna,
Budapest, Munich. Dresden, Berlin,
and thence an excursion into Russia.
At each of these points, and in the In
termedlate travel, l had opportunities
to talk with many men of prominence
and with as many more whom | could
classify as merely ordinary specimens
of their various types.
81 soon became aware that, quite
aside from the direct purpose of my
trip, | was gathering from these
sources Il collection Of significant and
cumulative evidence. Over and over
again Germans of different social posi-
TONS living in as many different parts
of Germany and neighboring countries,
volunteered the same opinion in almost
the same words:
"'You Yankees are all right, but it
is only a question of time when We
Germans will have to fight you, not
with trade regulations, but with cam
non.' And my question Why invari-