No great French and British armies held the lines against her, as they did in later years when once more she threatened America.  No mighty British fleet held the seas and kept the German Navy cooped up where it could do no harm,—­except to such merchant ships, passenger steamers and hospital boats as it could strike from under the water.  We faced Germany alone.  But we had two means of defense.  One of them was Admiral Dewey and his ships.  The first of them, however, and the only one needed, was the cool-headed and brave-hearted man in the White House.

He told the German Ambassador, quietly and without bluster, that unless the Kaiser agreed to arbitrate his quarrel with Venezuela, and unless he agreed within a short time, ten days or less, Admiral Dewey would be ordered to Venezuela to protect it against a German attack.  The German ambassador said that, of course, as the All Highest Kaiser had refused once before to arbitrate, there could be nothing done about it.  All Highests do not arbitrate.  People simply have to step aside.

President Roosevelt informed the German Ambassador that this meant war.  A few days later when the German Ambassador was again at the White House, the President asked if the Kaiser had changed his mind.  The Ambassador seemed to think that it was a joke.  The Kaiser change his mind at the bidding of a Yankee President!  It was almost funny!

“All right,” said President Roosevelt, “I can change my mind.  Admiral Dewey will not even wait until Tuesday to start for Venezuela.  He will go on Monday.  If you are cabling to Berlin, please tell them that.”

The pompous Ambassador was much flustered.  He hurried away, but returned in about a day and a half, still out of breath.

“Mr. President,” he said, “His Imperial Majesty the Emperor has agreed to arbitrate with Venezuela.”

So there was no delay, no long and distressing argument; and there was no war.  The President could do this because he knew his countrymen; he knew that they were not cowards.  He knew they never had failed to back up their leader in the White House.  He knew that no President need worry about loyalty when he tells America that a foreign enemy is making threats.  He had seen his courageous predecessor, Grover Cleveland, rouse America, as one man, over another Venezuelan incident, a dozen or more years before.  And he knew that the only occasion when America had ever seemed about to fall into doubt and hesitation in time of danger, was when that doubt and hesitation began in the White House,—­in the administration of Buchanan, before the Civil War.  America will always support her President, if war threatens,—­but America expects him to show leadership.  Timidity in the leader will make timidity in the nation.

So the Kaiser changed his mind and gave in,—­why?  Because he knew that there was a President in the White House whose words were easy to understand; they did not have to be interpreted nor explained.  And moreover, when these words were uttered, the President would make them good, every one.