The anti-German feeling, according to Prof. Eliot, takes its source from
the American objection to the committal of a nation to grave mistakes by
a permanent Executive. But then, with the exception of France, all the
warring nations have permanent Executives, professional diplomatists;
all their affairs are conducted in secret, and all their rulers have the
power, including the President of France, to embroil their nations in
war. The German Emperor is in this respect certainly more restricted
than the other heads of State, and I have not read that the declaration
of war has been expressly sanctioned by the English Parliament, and
certainly the mobilization of the English fleet that took place in July,
and the mobilization of the Russian Army that took place at the same
time, have not even been brought to the knowledge of the respective
Parliaments. When, therefore, the same conditions prevail in all the
warring States, how can they be made the reason for such an anti-German
feeling?
The same objection holds good with the American antipathy against the
power of rulers to order mobilization or declare war in advance without
consultation of Parliament, to which I have only to say that the English
fleet was mobilized without consulting the English Parliament, while in
Germany the Bundesrat, the representatives of the Federal States, as
well as of the Federal Diets, has been duly consulted.
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