Face to Face with Kaiserism

In some measure this book is a continuation of MY FOUR YEARS IN GERMANY, the narrative here being carried up to the time of my return home, with some observations on the situation I have found in the United States.

What I want especially to impress upon the people of the United States is that we are at war because Germany invaded the United States--an invasion insidiously conceived and vigorously prosecuted for years before hostilities began;--that this war is our war;--that the sanctity of American freedom and of the American home depend upon what we do NOW.

JAMES W. GERARD.

NEW YORK, APRIL FIRST, 1918.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER AND SOMETHING OF THE KING BUSINESS 13

II WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING AND WHO DECIDED ON THE BREAK WITH AMERICA? 32

III WHO SANK THE "LUSITANIA"? 42

IV THE KAISER AND "LESE-MAJESTE" 49

V WHEN THE KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 55

VI THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 73

VII GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 84

VIII GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 111

IX THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM--THE GERMAN SOUL 129

X THE LITTLE KAISERS 143

XI ROYALTY'S RECREATION 148

XII THE ETERNAL FEMININE 157

XIII HOME LIFE AND "BRUTALITY" OF THE PEOPLE 166

XIV AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 174

XV AUSTRIA-HUNGARY--THE KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 196

XVI GERMAN INFLUENCE ON THE NORTHERN NEUTRALS 217

XVII SWITZERLAND--ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAL 230

XVIII A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 237

XIX MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 251

XX GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 263

XXI EN ROUTE HOME--KAISERISM IN AMERICA 273

XXII THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 300

XXIII THE FUTURE KAISER--THE CROWN PRINCE AND HIS BROTHERS 312

XXIV WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 323

XXV THE ERRORS OF EFFICIENT GERMANY 340

XXVI PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 346

XXVII AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 368

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THE KAISER AND VON TREUTLER Frontispiece

THE IRON CROSS 36

THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY STAFF, BERLIN 50

FACSIMILE OF AN ORDER ISSUED BY COMMANDER OF GERMAN PRISON CAMP OF DOEBERITZ 78

COVER OF PAMPHLET BY JOHN L. STODDARD 104

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN COURTYARD OF EMBASSY, AUGUST, 1916 126

EXAMPLE OF A COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL OFFERED FOR SALE 152

VIEWS OF A TYPICAL HOLSTEIN COUNTRY HOME 188

MAIN STAIRWAY IN THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, BERLIN 210

AMBASSADORS SHARP AND GERARD, PARIS, FEBRUARY, 1917 240

THE "INFANTA ISABELLA" 274

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AFTER BANQUET GIVEN AMBASSADOR GERARD ON JANUARY 6TH, 1917 304

THE CROWN PRINCE AND CROWN PRINCESS 316

REPRODUCTION OF ZEPPELIN POST CARD OF PATRIOTIC SENTIMENT 336

ZEPPELIN POST CARD SOLD IN GERMANY 336

FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM

CHAPTER I

PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER AND SOMETHING OF THE KING BUSINESS

To the American mind the Kaiser is the personification of Germany. He is the arch enemy upon whom the world places the responsibility for this most terrible of all wars. I have sat face to face with him in the palace at Berlin where, as the personal representative and envoy of the President of the United States, I had the honor of expressing the viewpoint of a great nation. I have seen him in the field as the commanding general of mighty forces, but I also have seen him in the neutral countries through which I passed on my return home and in my own beloved land--in the evidence of intrigue and plotting which this militaristic monarch has begotten and which is to-day "the Thing," as President Wilson calls it, which has brought the American people face to face with kaiserism in the greatest conflict of all history.