To reach an understanding would have been difficult even in times of
peace. The American is unwilling to be either stiff or subservient. He
does not wish to be accounted of less value as a merchant than the
officer or official; wishes to do what he likes and to call the
President an ox outright if he pleases. Leave him as he is; and do not
continually hurt the empire and its swarms of emigrant children by the
attempt to force strangers into the shell of your will and your opinion.
Is it not possible that the American is analyzing the origin of the war
in his own way? That he looks upon Belgium's fate with other eyes than
the German? That he groans over "the army as an end in itself" and over
"militarism"? That he does not understand us any quicker than the German
Michel understands him? And that he puffs furiously when, after a long
period of drought, the war, a European one, now spoils his trade?
Only for months at the worst, Sam; then it will spring up again in
splendor such as has never been seen before. No matter how the dice fall
for us, the chief winnings are going to you. The cost of the war
(expense without increment, devastation, loss of business) amounts to a
hundred thousand million marks or more for old Europa; she will be
loaded down with loans and taxes.
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