[Transcriber's Notes Underscores are used for italic markup; the three words that end this sentence _are in italics_. The spelling and hyphenation are as found in the original text. There is one spelling mistake that deserves mention. Although “dreadnaught” can be accepted as an older spelling of “dreadnought”, Henderson's use of it to denote a certain type of battleship is incorrect. Battleships of this type were called dreadnoughts after _H.M.S. Dreadnought_, the first example of this type of ship. There is only one footnote: it has been left inline, that is, immediately after its flag.] GERMANY’S FIGHTING MACHINE [Illustration: Kaiser Wilhelm II] GERMANY’S FIGHTING MACHINE _Her Army, Her Navy, Her Air-ships, and Why She Arrayed Them Against the Allied Powers of Europe_ BY ERNEST F. HENDERSON _Author of_ SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY HISTORY OF GERMANY IN THE MIDDLE AGES BLÜCHER, ETC., ETC. WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1914 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY CHARLES FRANCIS PRESS, NEW YORK GERMANY’S FIGHTING MACHINE GERMANY’S FIGHTING MACHINE PART I THE WAR But a few weeks ago the author of this little book was in Germany studying the land and its institutions and full of admiration for its achievements in every field. Two days after he had taken ship for America Germany was practically at war with France and Russia. England soon joined in the conflict, and the splendid Hamburg liner on which the author was a passenger was a hunted thing on the ocean, owing her safety at last to a friendly fog. The great shipping company, with its nearly two hundred vessels, was out of the running as a commercial enterprise, a symbol of the paralyzed industries of the whole country.