Why did the Government do everything in its power to suppress this article?  The Government fully understood that there was nothing in it that was not true, nothing in it of a revolutionary character.  It divulged no military or naval secrets.  It was a simple statement of political truths.  But the German great Idea Factory in the Wilhelmstrasse does not judge printed matter from its truth or falsity.  The forming of the public mind in the mould in which it will best serve the interests of the State is the sole consideration.  While the Directors of Thought were deliberating on the relative disadvantages of a curtailment of submarine activity and America as an enemy, and the order of the day was to instill hatred, no matter how, they decided that it would be inadvisable for the people to read the true statements of Harden.

One American correspondent began to cable five thousand words of “If I Were Wilson” to his paper.  The Censor stopped him after he had sent thirteen hundred.  A rival correspondent, when he glanced at the article immediately after it had appeared, decided that it was more suitable for mail matter than cable matter, put it in an envelope, and actually scored a scoop over all opponents.

During the following days, when the leaders of Germany were in conference at the Headquarters of the General Staff, I travelled as much as possible to find out German sentiment.  The people were intoxicated with the successes against Verdun, and were angrily in favour of a break.  One German editor said to me “The Government has educated them to believe that the U-boat can win the war.  Their belief is so firm that it will be difficult for the authorities to explain a backdown to Wilson.”

It was not.  The Government can explain anything to the German people.  The back-down came, causing sentiments which can be divided into three groups.  One, “We were very good to give in to America.  England would not be so good.”  Two, “Americans put us in a bad position.  To curtail our submarine weapon means a lengthening of the war.  On the other hand, to add America to the list of our enemies would lengthen the war still more.”  Three, “We shall wait our opportunity and pay back America for what she has done to us.”  I heard the latter expression everywhere, particularly among the upper classes.  It was the expression of Doctor Drechsler, head of the Amerika-Institut in Berlin, and one of the powerful propaganda triumvirate composed of himself, Doctor Bertling, and the late Professor Munsterberg.

With the increasing deterioration inside the German Empire the resolve of the Chancellor to avoid a clash with the United States strengthened daily.  His opponents, however, most of the great Agrarians and National Liberals, the men behind Tirpitz, continue to work for a new submarine campaign in which all neutrals will be warned that their vessels will be sunk without notice if bound to or from the ports of Germany’s