THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



561 



ASPIRATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA 



Of North America the Pan-Germans 

 profess to covet only Cuba, Central 

 America, and Canada at the present 

 time, but some of her futurists see "the 

 American people conquered by the vic- 

 torious German spirit, so that in a hun- 

 dred years the United States will present 

 an enormous German Empire." How- 

 ever, Cuba, the Central American repub- 

 lics, and the British Dominion would 

 add 13,500,000 to the population of Ger- 

 many-Over-All and an area equal to 

 more than 18 times her European empire 

 at the outbreak of the world war. 



Thus it will be seen that the lands and 

 peoples which German statesmen and 

 would-be empire builders actually claim 

 as their right equal 29,000,000 square 

 miles, or more than one-half of the 

 earth's surface, and 1,245,000,000 inhab- 

 itants — three-fourths of all the people on 

 the globe. 



If we should add to these figures the 

 United States, concerning which certain 

 bold Teutonic spirits have already ex- 

 pressed themselves, and the Russian Em- 

 pire, which Germany undoubtedly will 

 subjugate unless America and the En- 

 tente Allies crush her, the grand total of 

 Kulturland would be 40,000,000 square 

 miles, more than 70 per cent of the 

 earth's land area, and 1,459,000,000 peo- 

 ple, all the human beings who breathe 

 save 237,000,000. 



What a Gargantuan structure com- 

 pared with the pigmy Roman Empire in 

 its most extensive hour, under Trajan, 

 when its subjects numbered a hundred 

 million and the word of its Emperor was 

 law over 1,971,000 square miles! And 

 how Alexander would have wept with 

 chagrin at the puny confines of his 2,170,- 

 000 square miles of territory in the light 

 of this Brobdingnagian German dream of 

 conquest ! 



THE KAISER'S WORSHIP OE RUTHLESS 

 CONQUERORS 



And by far the most diabolical aspect of 

 this craving for world power is the fact 

 that it has never occurred to the Prussian 

 mind to acquire influence through help- 

 fulness to others. Always it is the sword 

 of the conqueror which beckons the Kai- 



ser. This assertion is not inferential; it 

 is based on the avowed statement of the 

 German war lord himself, who boasts 

 thus : 



"From childhood I have been influ- 

 enced by five men — Alexander the Great, 

 Julius Caesar, Theodoric II, Frederick 

 the Great, and Napoleon. Each of these 

 men dreamed a dream of world empire. 

 I have dreamed a dream of German 

 world empire and my mailed fist shall 

 succeed." — From Ambassador Gerard's 

 "Face to Face with Kaiserism," page 16. 



Each of those paragons of power, 

 which Wilhelm II keeps enshrined in his 

 heart, had as his sole object in life the 

 glorification of self at the expense of 

 mankind, and the attitude of each toward 

 justice and moral law was the same as 

 that of German leaders today, as so 

 shamelessly admitted by Prince von Bue- 

 low in an. address before the Reichstag 

 on December 13, 1900, when he declared. 

 "I feel no embarrassment in saying here, 

 publicly, that for Germany right can 

 never be a determining consideration." 



Here are the words of her statesmen, 

 captains of industry, and publicists, 

 which prove the iniquity of Germany's 

 all-embracing covetousness : 



herr thysson's amazing confession 



"I was personally promised a free 

 grant of 30,000 acres in Australia and a 

 loan from the Deutsche Bank of £150,- 

 000, at 3 per cent, to enable me to de- 

 velop my business in Australia. Several 

 other firms were promised special trad- 

 ing facilities in India, which was to be 

 conquered by Germany, be it noted, by 

 the end of 19 15. A syndicate was formed 

 for the exploitation of Canada. This 

 syndicate consisted of the heads of 12 

 great firms ; the working capital was fixed 

 at £20,000,000, half of which w T as to be 

 found by the German Government. 



"Not only were these promises made 

 by the chancellor ; they were confirmed 

 by the Emperor, who on three occasions 

 addressed large private gatherings of 

 business men in Berlin, Munich, and 

 Cassel in 191 2 and 191 3. I was at one 

 of these gatherings. The Emperor's 

 speech was one of the most flowery ora- 

 tions I have listened to, and so profuse 



