The Mitchell Capital

GERMANY UNRUFFLED BY ITALY'S ENTRANCE

Berlin's Silence and Composure on Hearing the News Almost Uncanny.—Small Chance Therefore for America's Action to Cause Any Excitement Among the Germans.

Berlin, Germany (by mail)—For the stranger within Berlin's gates the last ten days will always be a vivid memory. Not because they have been exciting. But because they have been so unnaturally, so unbelievably—yes, so disappointingly quiet.

Italy has joined the seemingly foes. For more than two weeks it has been apparent that this was inevitable. The people of Berlin, as well as of all Germany, knew that it was really only a question of days before their ally of thirty years would be their enemy. Diplomatically they professed hopefulness. Diplomatically they insisted that such perfidy was unknown in history.

Berlin Calm as Italy Rages.

For ten days matters hung on the ragged edge. Italy wanted war; apparently her king did not. The cabinet resigned. The king called it back to work. Steadily, though somewhat boisterously, it steered the Italian ship of state into the harbor of Mars. From hour to hour grew the certainty of war. D'Annunzio fashioned howitzers out of the rose tinted petals of his poetry. Wild mobs paraded the streets of Italian cities and howled for bloodshed. The chamber, the senate, the cabinet, the king, one after another took up the cry and pledged the nation to the sword.

But through all these exciting days there was not enough real action in all of Germany to last one inning of a respectable ball game between tail-enders in the last week of the season at St. Louis. It was uncanny.

Holiday—No Papers Issued.

In Germany the Monday after Pentecost is as holy a holiday as Pentecost itself, so the declaration of war came squarely in the middle of this bit of holiday liberty. On both days the streets were crowded with people for it seemed as if half the army were home on furlough. Nature had done her finest. Cloudless skies and spring zephyrs seemed to banish the nightmare of war.

What an opportunity for your newspaper publisher! About an extra an hour would have been the American record—for each newspaper. Here they did not even get out the regular Monday editions, because it was a holiday. Two of the more enterprising newspapers got out a single sheet extra apiece, gratis. These were posted on the bulletin boards. Oh, it was an exciting time!

Knew It Meant a Crisis.

In many ways of course, all of this was only a surface restraint. For Germany realized that it was going into another stage of this terrible war. It realized that the addition of Italy to the Allies would give its foes help at a critical time. With Italy neutral, Germany felt that the Dardanelles could never be forced and that the latest assaults upon the Russians would be pretty nearly conclusive as far as that enemy might be concerned. Then it would be merely a case of settling with England and France on the west front.

Italy's going in spoiled this. You could not have blamed the Berliners if they had stood on their heads.

One Outbreak—By Schoolboy.

But they didn't. They didn't even take the precaution of putting a policeman in front of the Italian embassy. There might not have been any there yet but for an occurrence on the Thursday before the crash. A schoolboy ran up behind the Italian ambassador's motor car and poked off the ambassador's silk hat with a stick. The boy got a spanking and there were suggestions that the police president ought to resign for such woeful neglect. Now there are nine men on guard there with absolutely nothing to do. But that was the nearest Berlin came to a demonstration.

I don't know whether one ought to admire this baffling calm or censure it is inhuman. But the only real expression you could get out of the Berliners was "Another one" or "At last."

Real Excitement in Vienna.

Of course in Vienna it was different. There they had some real demonstrations, with a little red fire and plenty of speeches. Is it any wonder that in a country that could handle the Italian crisis with such polar calm the protests of our own government concerning the Lusitania case should have failed to stir up an immediate and warlike response?

Government and people alike were pretty busy with the Roman tangle and Washington seemed a long distance away.