lf strong enough to imitate it
in actual fact, Britain at least could not blame her. Besides, in her
internal industrial development Germany was already showing her equality
with England. In her iron and steel manufactures, her agricultural
machines, her cutlery, her armament works, her glass works, her aniline
dyes, her toys, and her production of a thousand and one articles (like
lamps) of household use, she was showing a splendid record--better in
some ways than England. For while England was losing ground, Germany was
gaining all the time. England was becoming degenerate and lacking in
enterprise. The Zeiss glassworks at Jena have now become the centre of
the optical-glass industry of the world. Carl Zeiss, the founder, tried
hard at one time to get the English glass-makers to turn out a special
glass for his purpose, with very high refractive index. They would not
trouble about it. Zeiss consequently was forced to take the matter up
himself, succeeded at last in getting such glass made in Germany, and
"collared" the trade. The same happened in other departments.

A certain amount of friction arose. The Germans at one time, knowing the
English reputation for cutlery, marked their knives and razors as "made
in Scheffield." The English retaliated in what seemed an insulting way,
by marking the Fatherland's goods as "made in Germany." With Germany's
success, commercial jealousy between the two nations (founded on the
utterly mistaken but popular notion that the financial prosperity of
the country you trade with is inimical to your own prosperity) began to
increase. On the German side it was somewhat bitter. On the English
side, though not so bitter, it was aggravated by the really shameful
ignorance prevailing in this country with regard to things German, and
the almost entire neglect of the German tongue in our schools and
universities and among our literary folk. As an expression (though one
hopes exceptional) of commercial jealousy on our side I may quote a
passage from a letter from a business friend of mine in Lancashire. He
says: "I remember about a _fortnight before_ the war broke out with
Germany having a conversation with a business man in Manchester, and he
said to me that we most certainly ought to join in with the other
nations and sweep the Germans off the face of the earth; I asked him
_why_, and his only answer was, '_Look at the figures of Germany's
exports; they are almost as high as ours_!' All he had