of ships and, indeed, of individual vessels. One thoroughly
capable of judging told me that he doubted whether there was any
admiral in our service who knew more about every American ship of
any importance than does the Kaiser. It has been said that his
devotion to the German navy is a whim. That view can hardly
command respect among those who have noted his labor for years
upon its development, and his utterances regarding its connection
with the future of his empire. As a simple matter of fact, he
recognizes the triumphs of German commercial enterprises, and
sees in them a guarantee for the extension of German power and
for a glory more permanent than any likely to be obtained by
military operations in these times. When any candid American
studies what has been done, or, rather, what has NOT been done,
in his own country, with its immense seacoast and its many
harbors on two oceans, to build up a great merchant navy, and
compares it with what has been accomplished during the last fifty
years by the steady, earnest, honest enterprise of Germany, with
merely its little strip of coast on a northern inland sea, and
with only the Hanseatic ports as a basis, he may well have
searchings of heart. The "Shipping Trust" seems to be the main
outcome of our activity, and lines of the finest steamers running
to all parts of the world the outcome of theirs. There is a
history here which we may well ponder; the young Emperor has not
only thought but acted upon it.

As to yet broader work, the crucial test of a ruler is his
ability to select MEN, to stand by them when he has selected
them, and to decide wisely how far the plans which he has thought
out, and they have thought out, can be fused into a policy worthy
of his country. Judged by this test, the young monarch would seem