[Illustration: _From a photograph by Brown and Dawson_ WILLIAM II GERMAN EMPEROR From a photograph taken since the beginning of the war of 1914] THE GERMAN EMPEROR AS SHOWN IN HIS PUBLIC UTTERANCES BY CHRISTIAN GAUSS PROFESSOR Of MODERN LANGUAGES, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published February, 1915 PREFACE Unlike his grandfather, who shielded himself behind his Chancellor, the present Emperor has always insisted upon making himself the storm-centre of the debates in his Reichstag and among his people. He has played with many, if not all, of his cards upon the table. In accordance with this policy he has gone through his country from end to end and into foreign lands, everywhere announcing his policies and his views on every possible subject of interest or controversy. Up to 1905 he had made upward of five hundred and seventy speeches, and since that time has made almost as many more. It was manifestly impossible to give all of these speeches, and it was also thought unfair to give merely extracts which might fail to represent the spirit of the entire pronouncement. They are all printed, therefore, in the completest form available. Particular speeches have often been reported to the press in widely differing versions. In all cases only those speeches are here presented which have received official or semiofficial sanction. The text followed for pronouncements made before 1913, with the one exception of the _Daily Telegraph_ interview, October 29, 1908, has always been that of the recognized and standard edition in four volumes, edited by J. Penzler and published in the Reclam _Universal-Bibliothek_. Now and then only portions of certain addresses appear to have been reported, and on a few occasions parts of speeches are given directly and other parts are merely summarized. In all such cases the speech is translated from the form sanctioned in the official version. In no case has any change been made. Where significant differences exist in the versions of addresses as given officially and unofficially, the official version is in every instance printed first. It has been the aim to present faithfully the language and spirit of the speaker, and his phraseology and emphasis have been reproduced as closely as was at all consistent with fair English usage. The speeches have been chosen to represent in due proportion his many interests, and range therefore from agriculture and art to Biblical criticism, national and international politics.