The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1918-11-21
his DREAM SHATTERED
kaiser's Wild Dream of Ruling the
World Ends in a HideOus Night
mare for DespiSed Ruler.

engine OF destruction OF which ne
was the embodiment, the exponent
and the leader rests the responsible,
ity of deliberately planning ano
the world has ever seen.
1t did not matter to the world that
the emperor's personal share in the
swift events Immediately preceding
the war had been obscured. The
world convicted him of organizing,
directing and maintaining at the top
notch OF, efficiency the great German
that he signed the order for the
German mobilization. 1t remember
ed that he stood sponsor for the
terrorism and brigandage which,
under the guise OF warfare, ravish-
ed Belgium, laid waste the cities OF
Serbia and sent the Lusitania with
her freight of women and children
to a grave in the Atlantic
Civilization will never forget that
it was the minions of the emperor
who officially shot to death Edith
Cavell the English girl who befriend-
ed the Belgians in Brussels.
Kaiser Stands Convicted.
Against these his cry, 81 did not
Before the bar of humanity William
was adjudged guilty of the greatest
crime since the crucitixion. In him
humanity saw the last of the auto
Gratis, the final Caesar. Assertions
that he was at heart peaceful, so
persistently circulated for years as
to give them the stamp of herman
tainly false. He who had long pro-
claimed himself the prince of peace
stood revealed as humanitys scourge
and against him and all that he
represented rose the new world of
democracy and freedom.
Many doubt whether William was
entirely sane. He said repeatedly
to rule, that the almighty was his
unconditional and avowed ally"
1t is, not entirely clear whether such
outgivings were the product OF a
disordered brain or were due to un
bounded egotism and an effort to
impress his subjects with the idea of
reverent and unquestioning submis-
sion, His speeches to his armies in
which he asserted he and they were
instruments of divine Judgment up
on Germany's enemies" were regard
ed by many outside of Germany as
piece or rhetoric, intended only to
deceive his own people.
His Early Beast.
Williams claim to close affinity
with God was the burden of dozens.
of his speeches long before as well as
after the beginning of the war. Of
fined his claim than his notorious
divine right speech delivered at
Brandenburg in 1890, in which he
as "a responsibility conferred upon
him by God and that it was my
duty to increase this heritage for
which one day 1 shall be called upon
to give account. Those who try to
interfere with my task l shall
crush
the war ar not 's a menace ace b. but "a" a comedy.
1t laughed with the then Capt.
Joseph B. Coghlan, of the United
States navy when, returning. from
the wal. with Spain and telling of
German squadron Of Manila bay, the
concluding refrain was, in the sup
positions words of the emperor:
"Gott pulls NIT me-and nit
him Meinself-Und Gott.'
Few statesmen realized then that
ann armor Ssoasa seTog hi his S armies and
his fleets, building up the German
military system, cementing the cen
trail empires and Turkey and foster
ing the preaching of the supremacy
of autocracy, was erecting machine
that would one day bring catastro-.
phe upon the nations. These men
saw in him then and see him now as
the most dangerous of all toys-his
a'!FS TRey Wv were Te'fii his playthings. He
developed them throughout the
years to the point where he had to
put them to test Like craZed
inventor, he feared the end of his
reign would find his Inventions un-
tried; so grasped the first opportun-
ity to wage world war.
World Had Warning.
Yet the world was warned by
some far-sighted men that the emp
eror one day would make war upon
all civilization.
Meantime the German war party
grew with William as its head, and
the scheme of world dominion await
ed the hour to begin is attainment.
Austrian archduke, Francis Ferdl-
nand. and his wife at SaraJevo.
Pretext For War.
Recalled from yachting trip,
William presided at conference at
Potsdam of representatives of the
German and Austrian armies, navies
and commercial interests. There,
according to the best information
obtainable, the decision was reach
ed to make the assassination Of the
archduke pretense for the world
war for which Germany had long
prepared.
In the diplomatic exchanges be-
tween Germany and Austria on one
side and Great Britain, France and
Russia on the other William posed
as one wishing for peace but driven
to war. He signed the order for the
mobilization Of the German army
and from that moment war was in
evitable.. Thereafter he. drove on
his armies relentlessly in the mad
campaigns for victory, encouraging
them with every device and some
times appearing on the front to be
proclaimed as personal commander
In q great offensive.
Publication of the "Willy-Nicky"
correspondence in 1917, placed the
German emperor in the light of an
INSCRIPTIONS plotter. The kilograms
disclosed that EmperOr William had
jnduced EMPEROR Nicholas Of Rus