an audience of the Kaiser and he
reported what the monarch told him about the possibilities of peace.
The report was rather encouraging to the Socialists because the Kaiser
said he would make peace as soon as there was an opportunity. But
these Socialists did not have much faith in the Kaiser's promises and
jokingly asked the business man if the Kaiser did not decorate him as a
result of the audience!

The real object of this meeting was to discuss means of acquainting the
German people with the American organisation entitled the League to
Enforce Peace. An American business man, who was a charter member of
the American organisation, was there to explain the purposes of the
League. The meeting decided upon the publication in as many German
newspapers as possible of explanatory articles. The newspaper editor
present promised to prepare them and urged their publication in various
journals. The first article appeared in _Die Welt Am Montag_, one of
the weekly newspapers of Berlin. It was copied by a number of
progressive newspapers throughout the Empire but when the attention of
the military and naval authorities was called to this propaganda an
order was issued prohibiting any newspaper from making any reference to
the League to Enforce Peace. The anti-American editorial writers were
inspired to write brief notices to the effect that the League was in
reality to be a League against Germany supported by England and the
United States.

Throughout the summer and fall there appeared in various newspapers,
including the influential _Frankfurter Zeitung_, inspired articles
about the possibilities of annexing the industrial centres and
important harbours of Belgium. In Munich and Leipsic a book by Dr.
Schumacher, of Bonn University, was published, entitled, "Antwerp, Its
World Position and Importance for Germany's Economic Life." Another
writer named Ulrich Bauschey wrote a number of newspaper and magazine
articles for the purpose of showing that Germany would need Antwerp
after this war in order to successfully compete with Holland, England
and France in world commerce. He figured that the difference between
the cost of transportation from the Rhine Valley industrial cities to
Antwerp and the cost of transportation from the Rhine Valley to Hamburg
and Bremen would be great enough as to enable German products to be
sold in America for less money than products of Germany's enemies.

These articles brought up the old