the greatest man in the world?"

"The Kaiser!"

"Should there ever be, children, a vacancy in the Trinity, who is best
fitted to fill the position?"

"The Crown Prince!"

"Who are the chosen people of the good old German God?"

"The German people!"

Never was there a finer bit of sarcasm and yet the Germans were never
able to understand the play. The Kaiser, the War Staff, the Cabinet,
down to the last wretched creature working in the stables and the
sewers, reading the play, exclaimed:

"What is the man driving at? Why, of course the Germans are the greatest
people in the world--we admit it!"

Now, during the last few years the Germans have spent untold millions in
propagating this myth of superiority, and yet the German intellect has
never even had a second-rate position. Call the roll of all the tools
that have redeemed men from drudgery and you will find that Germany's
contributions are hopelessly inferior to the other nations.

The new industrial era began with the locomotive and steamship; James
Watt invented the one and Stevenson the other.

The new era of physical comfort began with the loom; a Frenchman named
Jacquard and an Englishman named Arkwright made men warm for their work
in winter. Garments within the reach of the poor man in forest and
factory, field and mine, means the cotton gin, and that gin is the gift
of an American. The sewing machine changed woman's position, but the
world owes that to our own Elias Howe.

We owe the telegraph to an English inventor and, in part, to Morse. We
owe the cable in part to Lord Kelvin and, in part, to Cyrus Field. We
owe the telephone to Bell and the wireless to Marconi.

Holland invented the submarine, Wright the airplane, McCormick the
reaper and Edison the phonograph.

An American invented the German submarine; an American invented the
German torpedo; an American invented the German machine-gun; an American
invented the Murphy button, the yellow fever antitoxin, the Dakin
solution.

An English physician discovered the circulation of the blood, Jenner
gave us vaccination, Lister antiseptics, France the Pasteur serums and
the Curie radio discoveries, while a Bulgarian, Dr. Metchnikoff,
discovered the enemies of the blood.

It was from France, England and the United States that Germany stole the
typewriter, the steel building, the use of rubber, the aniline dyes,
reenforced concrete bridges, air-brakes, the use of electricity.

One of the most a