that within a year Germany will have seized
the new Canal and proclaimed its defiance of the great Monroe Doctrine.
We have six million Germans in the United States, and the
Irish-Americans behind them. The Americans, believe me, are _as a
nation_ a cowardly nation, and will never fight organized strength
except in defense of their own territories. With the Nova Scotian
peninsula and the Bermudas, with the West Indies and the Guianas we
shall be able to dominate the Americas. By our possession of the entire
Western European seaboard America can find no outlet for its products
except by our favour. Her finance is in German hands, her commercial
capitals, New York and Chicago, are in reality German cities. It is some
years since my father and I were in New York. But my opinion is not very
different from that of the forceful men who have planned this war--that
with Britain as a base the control of the American continent is under
existing conditions the task of a couple of months.

I remember a conversation with Doctor Dohrn, the head of the great
biological station at Naples, some four or five years ago. He was
complaining of want of adequate subventions from Berlin. "Everything is
wanted for the Navy," he said. "And what really does Germany want with
such a navy?" I asked. "She is always saying that she certainly does not
regard it as a weapon against England." At that Doctor Dohrn raised his
eyebrows. "But you, _gnaedige Frau_, are a German?" "Of course." "Well,
then, you will understand me when I say with all the seriousness I can
command that this fleet of ours is intended to deal with smugglers on
the shores of the Island of Ruegen." I laughed. He became graver still.
"The ultimate enemy of our country is America[85]; and I pray that I may
see the day of an alliance between a beaten England and a victorious
Fatherland against the bully of the Americas." Well, Germany and Austria
were never friends until Sadowa had shown the way. Oh! if your country,
which in spite of all I love so much, would but "see things clearly and
see them whole."

Bremen, September 25, 1914.

_To Ralph W. Page_[86]
London, Sunday, November 15, 1914.

DEAR RALPH:

You were very good to sit down in Greensboro', or anywhere else,
and to write me a fine letter. Do that often. You say there's
nothing to do now in the Sandhills. Write us letters: that's a fair
job!

God save us, we need 'em. We need any