These are indeed words of wisdom and truth. Even after the conclusion of peace, the exponents of "frightfulness" and the knights of the "skull-cracker" will be accorded a hell of their own. 8. THE BLUNDER AS TO AMERICANS OF GERMAN DESCENT. One of Germany's colossal blunders was her estimate of the sentiments and principles of German-born people who have made their homes in America, and the American sons and daughters of German-born parents. German statesmen whose criminal wishes shaped their thoughts sincerely believed that the admiration and love of the Kaiser's despotism, including even the military iron heel, was so great that the influence of American liberty, open-hearted hospitality and vast opportunity would count for naught when the Kaiser cracked his whip. The Simple Simons of Wilhelmstrasse actually believed that in any struggle with America, all Americans of German ancestry necessarily would be traitors to their own hearthstones, and would rise en masse, fully-armed, cobra-like, to strike the government of the United States. Being themselves ruthlessly devoted to the idea of might and conquest, and the merciless subjugation of small and weak nations, they judged their kindred in America by their own rotten standards. They foolishly assumed that a German forty years in America would willingly become a black-hearted traitor to the land that for years had sheltered him, and made much of him,--simply because the ruthless builders of modern Germany had endeavored to keep a grip on him, and had willed that he should obey their orders. But the people of America made no mistakes of that kind. They recognized that so long as the United States was not at war with Germany, the sympathy of all Americans of German descent would be against the Allies. That was as natural as it is for water to run down hill. But when war with Germany was declared, after a multitude of insults and injuries and too many efforts at avoidance, the native American felt no serious misgiving regarding the great body of Americans of German ancestry. All that they did fear was the crazy possibilities of individual hot-heads; and it was pointed out to German-Americans that the insane and treasonable acts of such irresponsibles might easily involve great masses of perfectly innocent people. The Americans of German descent sternly forbade all such folly by their people, and it will be a pleasure for the historians of these times to record the fact that the German-born Americans have, as a mass, elected to be Americans first, and the others have wisely feared to be openly hostile to the United States.