The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-10-24


Copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure Newspa-
per 9yndicatel
-, - -
CHAPTER XIV.
The Kaiser and Thinns American.
Among the Germans generally there
ls a surprising degree Of ignorance e
garding conditions In America. The
untraveled German has but The vaguest
ideas concerning our people and our
institutions. l have had patients OF
intelligence and education ask me how
We are abe to cope with the Indians.
ln view Of the extent Of German emf.
grafton to America and the vast vol.
unne Of commercial transactions be-
tween the two countries, 1t Is almost
unbelievable that such erroneous no
lions should prevail in these enlight-
ened days. but they do.
This fact partially serves to explain
how easy It was for the kaiser and his
inspired press to pull the wool over
the peoples eyes regarding the unim-
portance Of Americas entry into the
wal. It doesn't explain at all, how
ever, how completely the kaiser him.
self underestimated us and our power,
for ! doubt whether there is any for
eigner living, who has never visited
America who knows more about our
country than the German emperor. In
deed, he was more familiar with many
Of our problems than many Of our
countrymen, ind he frequently reveal
ed to me in the cours Of our conve
sations how thoroughly posted he was
on American conditions.
Long before the subject Of forest
conservation was taken up seriously in
this country, the kaiser pointed out to
me what q great mistake we were
making in not devoting more atten-
ton to II.
Can you tell me, Davis, why you
have 30 many forest fires In your coun-
tryf" he asked, after a particularly
destructive conflagration in the West
had destroyed many acres OF timber.
AOW uOoS II
/ explained to him that most Of the
forest fires came from sparks from
locomotives. Careless lumbermen al
lowed the branches which they Topped
on the trees to remain on the ground
and when they were ignited by sparks
the fire sometimes spread to the uncut
timber. AS the facilities for extin-
gushing fire in these unpopulated re-
gions were practically all and the eli
mate made the timber particularly in
1ammable, these fires usually attained
serious dimensions.
'sThat points out again the inefh-
cheney of your form Of government" he
commented. "You have laws requiring
the railways to $ appliances to ar
rest the sparks from their engines,
haven't you? Why don't you enforce
them7 Your people don't seem to
realize that it takes years to grow a
tree. Because you have more than you
need today, you make no preparation
for tomorrow. For every tree cut
! down another should be planted. II
you don't adopt some such measure the
time will surely come when America
will have to turn to Germany for tim
ber."
The kaiser was q harsh critic of our
election system. The idea Of a four
year term for the president was nat
urally -epugnant to one who held such
exalted notions as to the rights Of
rulers. It would be too much to ex-
pect the Hohenzollern mind to approve
Of q constitution which provided for
the rulers return to private life after
q period Of four years at the head Of
the government.
He declared that with q constant
change of administration It was quite
out Of the question for this country
to follow any definite policy. It was
bad enough even SO far as internal
affairs were concerned, he said, but
such a system made 1t impossible he
thought for America ever to take q
prominent place In international poll
tics.
You can't expect the nations Of the
Sworld to deal with America as they
deal among themselves when the next
change Of administration may meal
the adoption Of an entirely new foreign
policy" he declared. "There can be
nothing stable about the foreign policy
Of b nation whose leaders change every
four years. 4
American party politics were q con-
slant source bf embarrassment to the
V1kaiser. He always seemed undecided
fas to just how he should receive an
American OF prominence. Il he hap
pened to be Of the same political faith
as the; administration. the kaiser was
afraid to do him too much honor for
Tear Of offending the opposing party,
who might win the next election; and
Il he were not Of the same party ~
the administration. the kaiser feared
to honor him lest more Immediate .
sentiment be stirred up IN America.
Thus he refused to receive Bryan on
two different occasions when q Repub-