If I force memory and recount this unimportant little Incident, it is just to emphasize the fact that no one I have ever seen in this world had a greater magic of personality than Bismarck-an authentic great man.
No one in Europe at the time realized the disastrous consequences of Bismarck's fall. Every one knew that as far back as '79 he had formed an Austro-German alliance, directed practically against Russia. He was the inspirer too of the French occupation of Tunis in 1881. His object was to create ill feeling between France and Italy, and he succeeded.
In 1882 he won the adhesion of Italy to the alliance and so strengthened Germany against France, as well as against Russia. But even this Triple Alliance did not satisfy him. He knew how to play on imperial rulers. In 1884 he concluded with Russia a secret treaty behind the backs of both his Allies-a treaty by which it was arranged that if Germany or Russia were attacked, the other would come to her ally's assistance.
It was the failure of the Emperor William, and of his Chancellor, the Count von Caprivi, to renew this secret treaty in 1890 that first weakened Germany's position in Europe.
In 1891 the Russian Government invited a French squadron to Kronstadt — which should surely have warned even the Emperor William of his blunder.
And in 1893 the Russians sent Admiral Avellane to return the visit to Toulon.
Thus the Russian-French alliance was set on foot, if not at once concluded.
Bismarck's diplomacy was more cunning even than that imagined by Machiavelli. French colonial enterprise everywhere, and especially in Africa, was favored by German diplomacy, with the intention of separating France and England. And in this Bismarck's diplomacy continued to be effective after he himself had fallen from power; for the greater part, indeed, of the last decade of the nineteenth century! Fashoda in 1896 almost brought about war between the two countries.
Immediately after the fall of Bismarck, his policy that had made Germany the first of European powers was abandoned. The extraordinary commercial prosperity that had resulted from it continued and blinded the German people to the dangers of the new diplomacy that was, in truth, little more than the erratic impulses of William II. I can never think of William II without recalling the great phrase of Vauvenargues: Les pros-perites des mauvais rois sont fatales aux peuples.
As soon as I heard of Bismarck's dismissal by the Emperor, I felt sure that William II was a small fish.
'We Germans,' said Bismarck later, 'fear God and nothing else.' He would have been much greater if he had feared God enough to play the game of life quite fairly. He did his best to embroil England with France. His want of moral scruple was his besetting sin.
But, if one can find fault with the inflexible selfish purpose of Bismarck, the policy that succeeded his was devoid of any virtue. William II not only brought France and Russia into a close alliance, but, with inconceivable stupidity, he estranged Italy and exasperated England without winning a single friend, unless, indeed, Turkey could be called a friend.
My private judgment of him, derived chiefly from the Prince of Wales and a casual meeting with the War-lord, as he loved to be called, I will give in due time: but for the moment I can only say that his famous speech, addressed to the Brandenburg Diet in this year, 1892, filled me with unutterable contempt. He talked about God as the 'Supreme Lord' and 'his unmistakable conviction that He, our former Ally at Rossbach and Dennewitz, will not leave me in the lurch. He has taken such infinite pains with our ancient Brandenburg and our House that we cannot suppose He has done this for no purpose. No; on the contrary, men of Brandenburg, we have a great future before us, and I am leading you towards days of glory.'
There was one man in Germany, Maximilian Harden, who foresaw the ruin of Germany as soon as William II abandoned Bismarck and his successful international policy; perhaps I ought to say a word about him here.
Harden came to Berlin during the Bismarckian era, an ardent admirer of Bismarck and the great Chancellor's strictly national theories, a boy of nineteen who had just finished college.
His name then was Max Witkovski-a Jewish boy. A Jew had a hard time of it in Germany in those days. Public recognition seemed impossible. His journalistic career proved to him that a German name would be more advantageous. The English periodicals of the late eighties and early nineties, with their frankness and love of truth, became his ideal of journalism. In vain he tried to persuade publishers to follow the English lead, treating royalty and the aristocracy of birth as boldly as the British.
None could see what good it would do to quarrel openly with those in power.
Harden became the pioneer of the new journalism. He started a weekly paper, Die Zukunft (The Future). A storm of antagonism arose in all quarters.
Harden became the most discussed man in Germany. His paper was read everywhere. He attracted the youth of Germany. The modernists flocked to him; his paper became the mouthpiece of young, rebellious Germany. Never before had such free language been used in a German periodical.
He made enemies galore. Mercilessly he tore down superstitions and showed the inherent weakness of an absolute monarchy. Even his foes read his paper.
His circulation became extraordinary for a one-man magazine.
There was rarely a week in which some influential noble or some powerful organization did not start libel suits against the Zukunft. Harden hardly ever retracted a statement. He never published an article without proof of its veracity in hand. 'Very well,' was his eternal answer, 'I shall prove and substantiate in court the truth of what I have written.' Many of his opponents believed he would not dare to go to court. But he dared. A few sensational libel cases, which he won, left him free to do as he pleased.
He became the most feared publicist in Germany. This is what Harden wrote about William II in 1896:
Germany cannot, in view of the results of the six years since Bismarck's dismissal, refrain from asking their Emperor whether it was indeed necessary to remove, with ruthless hand, the man who raised the Hohenzollern House to a pinnacle, placed the military power of Prussia on a sure basis, founded the German Empire and prepared a future for German influence…
It would be criminal to ignore the dark clouds slowly and threateningly gathering on the German horizon. It would be criminal also to keep silence, seeing that the storm which piled up the clouds blew from the highest point of observation where the greatest serenity of mind ought to prevail.
He dared to publish his famous open letter addressed to William Hohenzollern. The Eulenburg scandal came as a result. A few suicides among the nobility followed the exposure about the Round Table of the 'Most High.'
Everybody predicted Harden's imprisonment, his trial for lese majeste.
Nothing happened. He was stronger even than His Imperial Majesty's Court, and everybody knew that he would show little reverence, and still less consideration, for the Kaiser's sacred person. The scandal of the Kaiser's friendship with the notorious Krupp some years later was Harden's complete justification.
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CHAPTER VI
In the years from 1883 to 1887 I was working sixteen or seventeen hours a day on the Evening News, Bit by bit I found out the secret of journalistic success in London, and I may as well tell the story here. First of all, I discovered that the public did not care a row of pins for scholarly or even original leading articles. Arthur Walter praised this part of the Evening News very cordially, but I soon found that it had no effect whatever on the circulation. The first thing that gave me the clue to success was the divorce case of Lady Colin Campbell. I had met Lady Colin in Paris and admired, as every one else admired, her tall, superb figure and remarkable brunette beauty. I went to the court chiefly out of curiosity and heard her statement and cross-examination. I then begged the Evening News correspondent to give me a verbatim report, for I soon realized that no other paper would treat the case as it deserved. It was full of the most scabrous details. In successive editions that evening, I gave up the whole of the right-hand center page to it, and promised my readers, in the beginning, to give the fullest account possible of the trial. The question was how far I should report the lady's revelations.
