SECTION SIX
Pages 1 to 8
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MAGAZINE
SECTION
NO. 33.
VOI,. XXXIII.
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TOWERING above the nations and
the statesmen of nations In the
present world conflict Is one
colossal personality Wilhelm II, by
the gTace of God, King- of Prussia, and
Emperor of the German people.
No matter what the final fortunes of
the war may be. It still will converge
In all points like filings towards a
magnet, about the life and the per
sonality of this one man. For it is
this war that is the culminating point
In his life and In the life of the nation
that he has. In a measure, created.
Whether the conflict bring ultimate
success to him or failure. It has In It
the elements that will give the world
ths right to Inscribe In history "the
Great" after the name of this latest
Emperor in a line of Emperors who
have rightfully and gloriously worn
the title of greatness.
The world, or much of the world, at
tributes the present war to the ag
gression of the Kaiser. Much of the
world, likewise, attributes It to ag
gression from the Slavonian side of
Europe and, Asia History In a few
rears hence may be able to write the
real causes back of the war in clearer
words than it can be expressed in the
present moments of inter-racial pas
sion and jealousy.
And yet. whether the war originated
from the Kaiser or from other source,
the mere fact of the existence In the
world today of this strarigely vigorous
and paradoxical personality, made it
Inevitable that the clash of nations
should come to pass.
"This young Hohenzollern will con
siderably outshine all his predecessors
on the throne," predicted Prince Gorts
chakoff. the Russian Chancellor, when
Wilhelm was yet, a. child and a child
with striking military tendenclea "He
will be the mainspring of Germany
and his Influence will be felt through
out the world. When the time comes
he will astonish Europe."
Point for point the prophecy of the
old Russian Chancellor has been proved
true In a doxen times since It was
made, and today It Is being proved
true on a grander scale than ever be
fore In the Illustrious life of the Em
peror of the German people.
Trained I. Ike an Athlete.
Wilhelm II seems to have sensed his
destiny from the beginning and his
life, off the throne and on the throne,
has been one of preparation to meet
that destiny. He foresaw the task that
Fate had set for him and he trained
himself to carry It out. Physical disa
bilities were overcome, and by a life
of rigid self-denial and careful drill
and study the Kaiser has kept himself
always like a fine athlete trained to
perfect condition for the race he must
run.
And In his preparation of himself he
has drawn with him the whole German
nation; and the nation has followed
him willingly.
"We may like or dislike him," says
Price Collier In his classic study of the
character of Wilhelm II, "approve or
disapprove, rejoice in autocracy or
abominate it, admire the far-reaching
discipline or regret the Iron mold in
which much of the German life Is en
cased, but for the moment all this is
beside the mark.
"Here Is a man who in a quarter of
a, century has so grown Into the life
of a nation, the most powerful on the
Continent and one of the three most
powerful la the world, that. when, you
turies of rebellious blows leveled at
the icons of kingly tradition, and we
have wrested our governmental privi
leges one by one from the hands of the
authority that was once supposed to
exist by the active grace of God, until
the shadow of kingly authority alone
remains and the idea of divine origin
of kingly power we hang up in the
market place to be hooted at by the
throngs of fighting freedmen who have,
to their own satisfaction at least,
proved its fallacy.
Not so, however, with the people of
Germany.
Rales by Divine Right.
In their history there is no Magna
Charta; no Declaration of Independ
ence; no storming of a Bastille. The
rulers of the German Empire, for 200
years and more, have behind them a
tradition of kingly dominance that
seems well to vindicate the phrase "by
the grace of God." Wilhelm and his
ancestors made Prussia They built up
their reigning power by their own
might and there was no Runnymede at
which they were ever compelled to
relinquish a Jot of It The citizens of
Prussia never stormed the battlements
of equal rights to make a treaty with
their sovereign, but the sovereigns
voluntarily gave to them such political
rights as they have.
Wilhelm II believes In the divine
right of his rulershlp, as his ancestors
before him believed in it, and his peo
ple find in none of the traditions of
their nation any testimony that would
tend to cloud his title.
Thus It becomes conceivable that the
Kaiser holding his rule with an avowed
belief in Its divine origin, and sup
ported in this belief by the temper of
his people, being as he Is a character
dynamically different from the typical
conservative Teuton, should grip hold
of the nation and mold It toward the
vision that he as an Individual saw.
"Kaiser Wilhelm II is today the mas
ter key of every question, institution
and problem of a country of more
than 68,000,000 people."
Germany, before he was born, had
suffered bitterly from the scourge of
foreign conquerors, and was just be
ginning to bud Into the protective
military system that was to lift her
out of danger of being further harassed.
He shared with his grandfather the
dream of the full return of the glory
and brilliancy of the old German em
pire of the time of the Hohenstaufen
dynasty.
"All this must come again," his
grandfather told him as a boy, when
he had recited the tradition of the
great Frederick Barbarossa. "The
might of the empire must be restored
and the glory of the Imperial Crown
blaze out afresh. Barbarossa must be
set free from the Kyffhauser Moun
tain." This was the vision! this the desire
and In this age of the world as In other
ages, the surest means of bringing
the vision to pass was through mili
tary greatness.
When Wilhelm ascended the throne
of the empire, June 15. 1888, his first
proclamation was to the army; his sec
ond to the navy, and his third to the
people.
And he began to make strong the
arms of his empire.
Serene in the confidence of his di
vinely bestowed right he went forward
with his work. There can be no ques
tion of the sincerity of his belief In
God's bestowal of the throne,
"I have taken over this .government
sy
touch it anywhere you touch him, when
you think of it from any angle of
thought or describe It from any point
of view, you find yourself Including
him.
"To write about Germany without
writing about the Emperor is as Impos
sible as to Jump away from one's own
shadow. When the sun Is behind any
phase or department of German life,
the shadow cast Is that of Germany's
Emperor."
The complaisance of a people that
would so allow one personality to grip
and dominate them In every phase of
their national life is scarcely intelligi
ble to the citizen of Great Britain or
of America. Our liberties in both of
these countries are the results of cen-
rt a '- "
0arPhoU
in the presence of the king of kings,"
he proclaimed when he assumed the
throne, "promising God to be a Just and
a merciful prince, cultivating piety and
the fear of God."
Again in a speech at Bremen in 1897,
near 10 years later:
"If we have been abl to accomplish
what his been accomplished. It la due
to the fact that our house possesses the
tradition by virtue of which we con
sider that we have been appointed by
nnr tn preserve and direct, for their
own welfare,' the people over whom he
has given us power'
Earlier than this, about two years
after his accession to the throne and
while the break between him and Bis
marck was impending, he declared at
Brandenburg on March 6: "I look upon
mrtA nfl.Mnrt banded On to
m, as resp o risibility,-conferred- upon
me by God, and that it la, as Is written
In the Bible, my duty to Increase this
heritage, for which I shall be one day
called to give an account.
His Sinister Prediction.
"Those who Interfere with my task
I BhaU crush," he added, with- a jin-
later prediction of what might betide
the Individual or the nation that at
tempted to stand In the way of his
dream of Germany's greatness.
Numberless reaffirmations of his be
lief In the divine right of kings have
been made, such as, at Konlgsberg In
laio.
"It was In this spot" he said, "that
my grandfather In his own right,
placed the royal crown of Prussia on
his head. Insisting once again that It
was bestowed by the grace of God
alone, and not by Parliaments and
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