AMERICA, GERMANY, AND CHINA 1899-1902 191 



ment was received by the German press in a way that 

 showed a reaction from previous injustice. 



During August and September preceding the political 

 campaign which resulted in Mr. McKinley s reelection 

 I was in the United States. It was the hottest summer 

 in very many years, and certainly, within my whole ex 

 perience, there had been no torrid heat like that during 

 my visits to Washington. Nearly every one seemed pros 

 trated by it. Upon arriving at the Arlington Hotel, I 

 found two old friends unnerved by the temperature, one 

 of them not daring to risk a sunstroke by going to the 

 train which would take him to his home in Chicago. 

 Retiring to one s room at night, even in the best-situated 

 hotels, was like entering an oven. The leading official per 

 sons were generally absent, and those who remained 

 seemed hardly capable of doing business. But there was 

 one exception. Going to the White House to pay my 

 respects to the President, I found him the one man in 

 Washington perfectly cool, serene, and unaffected by the 

 burning heat or by the pressure of public affairs. Al 

 though matters in Cuba, in Porto Rico, in the Philippines, 

 in China, and in the political campaign then going on must 

 have been constantly in his mind, he had plenty of time, 

 seemed to take trouble about nothing, and kept me in his 

 office for a full hour, discussing calmly the various phases 

 of the situation as they were affected by matters in Ger 

 many. 



His discussion of public affairs showed the same quiet 

 insight and strength which I had recognized in him when 

 we first met, in 1884, as delegates at the Chicago National 

 Convention. One thing during this Washington inter- 

 yiew struck me especially : I asked him if he was to make 

 any addresses during the campaign; he answered: &quot;No; 

 several of my friends have urged me to do so, but I shall 

 not. I intend to return to what seems to me the better 

 policy of the earlier Presidents: the American people 

 have my administration before them; they have ample 



