FROM COLOGNE TO BERLIN

...GERMANY passed through crises before, but never, we were repeatedly reminded, without great leadership...

...Now one hears everywhere of divisions and cross purposes, the final outcome of which no person can guess...

...One may go for days, even in Berlin, without seeing a soldier...

...The former Kaiser is out of the question...

...and a young machinist, who had been unable to find work for over a year, added: "Yes, it must be so, bad as it looks now...

...Those who come over here and •:.nd the robust Germany - - perhaps the ho tie-¦/hat too robust Germany — of before the war ¦nust be blind...

...But their interest goes far beyond this phase...

...For GerrAany may not be studied in one city, as we are told France may be...

...It used to be difficult for him to see beyond what he called our idolatry of the dollar, He would admit, when you talked with hrm, that there were no doubt other interests, but when you were through talking, our money-madness stood out above all the rest like a mountain peak...

...We learned also that the radio functions in the outlying districts of Germany as it does in the United States...

...Getting acquainted, we shortened the journey through conversation, and we learned all sorts of little items later on to be of use...

...One's observations are therefor© inevitably subjective...

...FROM COLOGNE there is a direct route to Berlin...

...One of the most interesting developments, then, to watch in Germany is the rise of a great leader...

...It would be strange if Billy Scborger did not know...

...He still recognizes our interest in economic goods, but ft no longer dominates the picture...

...We begin to see the path," aaid a young business man, who was starting all over again, "but it is going to be a stiff climb...

...but generally they seem to me utterly mechanical and quite without meaning or beauty...

...One feels the change unmistakably...

...he deserted...

...Still I have been unable to forget the look of yearning in his eyes as he told me of his cousin at work in Chicago...

...Bruns, whose enthusiasm persuaded us to stop off...

...This young woman, who lived with her husband and children in a mining village, was enthusiastic over what the radio had done for her and her family and for the other families in her village, who, of course, had very little opportunity to get to cultural centers...

...She was a simple person, but when we had parted from her we knew that we would remember her honest blue eyes, her kindly intelligent face, her spotless attire...

...The new may be said to be lost in the old...

...And she was quite unaware that she was dodging the whole question, "which is the way with all of us when guilty <*f the same fallacy...

...THERE can be no doubt that the present-day German is more interested in America than formerly...

...And with this discovery of America go a frankness of admiration and a warmth of interest which are most gratifying to one who hopes for a better international understanding...

...It is not strange thjat a people confronted by a stupendous problem of industrial reconstruction should be impressed by our industrial effectiveness, should be reading the biographies of Edison and Ford, books like Stuart Chase's on economic waste, and studies by German scholars on the foundation of American fortunes...

...They do not see that the smile •»f Germany is the- smile of a convalescent...

...Should an Emperor some day succeed the President, it would be a change in form, not in function...

...Sat this is on« oi those achievements of the research mind which sticks to the facts and misses th« truth...

...It would be a simple matter to enumerate many such changes...

...Possibly the type of leadership desired is suggested by the picture displayed in many shop windows, showing Frederick the Great, Bismarck, and Hindenburg side by side...

...w« heard celebrated the first High Mass of this year's Lent...

...Besides, say the women, he married again too soon after the beloved Empress' death...

...Wanting this outward leadership, the Germans still have an inner leadership...

...Every night," she said, "after Abendessen, and before - the children go to bed, we tune in on Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, or wherever we can hear the best music, and end the day as human beings should...

...For some reason, this psychic landscape has rearranged itself...

...It was not the power of doctrine, which moved us and which sent us out with a feeling of having been cleansed and dedicated anew to the best within us...

...There are some in Prussia who would like it, many in Bavaria, but few in Saxony...

...Not that the Germans have ceased to be critical of us — they have not ceased to be Germans — but through all their criticism they appreciate us as a great, powerful people striving, even if more or less blindly, to realize a great spiritual ideal, and hence they feel a kinship with us...

...That is the question we must put to the Madisonian, who does brilliant ornithological investigation as a diversion from business...

...If it is possible to take the pulse of Paris and know the state of France, this is out of the question where sections of the country are so diverse in temper as Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria — to speak only of these...

...We shall not forget the experience...

...Yet one needs only to get out of the sections most visited by tourists or, better still, talk intimately with its people, to find that underneath this brave eexterior beats a heavy heart...

...And to complicate things a little more, there is the Germany of middle life and the younger Germany, never to be exactly identified, but decidedly not just now, unless looking east or looking west come3 to the same thing...

...The republican type of government, as far as one can see, is preferred to the monarchy as it was...

...From her we had our first taste of German apples, more spicy than ours at home, and she was good enough to praise our American candy, some of which we still had with is...

...He ran away...

...And an American, who comes into contact with this uneonquered faith, who responds to the renewal of creative energy everywhere evident about him, who is able to enter the doors thrown open by music and art, will return home with a quickened purpose to make his own life more beautiful and noble...

...ONE of the most impressive things about the Germans of other years was their feel-tng of national unity and efficiency...

...That is one more difference to mark...

...THE ROUTE to Berlin leads moreover through Hildesheini...

...We enquired of the bright-eyed, red-cheeked young woman, who shared our compartment and who lived thereabout, whether the story of the Pied Piper was based on fact...

...it was the power of music and of beauty, mingled with a vague sense of the tragedy of human life...

...It passes through Hamelin, a city...

...a favorite of Professor and Mrs...

...And the Hildesheimerg have civic pride...

...Next month he will tell us of his trip from Dresden to Vienna...

...From Hildesheim, it is not much farther to Berlin than Madison is from Chicago, and then one may settle down a week or two for pictures and music...

...Hundreds of thousands out of work, other hundreds of thousands working part time, taxes direct and indirect, which we would think unbearable, all kinds of deprivations imposed by the aftermath of the war, these are some of the things through which the German must hope, and smile if he can...

...And he promises later to jrive his impressions of Italy.—B...

...In Hildesheim these common conditions are reversed...

...C. L. s'YONE who wishes may consul a Baedeker and, according to the iearned, discover when the Cathedral of Cologne was built anc what style of architecture it represents...

...And this break-down of social solidarity has brought the Germans something new, not new in the worid, but new to them — political corruption...

...This mass at Cologne, considered merely as an artistic spectacle, was overwhelming...

...He has acquired an appreciation of our manner of life, our problems and ideals, which is often surprising...

...The sense of unity will return, the problem of political corruption will be solved, and the economic stress relieved...

...Whatever befalls, they believe themselves destined to spiritual -greatness...

...Some part of it," she replied, "roust be true, for the bouse in which he lived can be seen to this day...

...Well, that is not so certain...

...The order is perfect, official Germany was never so considerate, the theaters are filled, the shops are fascinating, the smile of prosperity seems to rest on every city and countryside...

...known by name to children the world around...

...In Hildesheim, too, strolling in a shaded walk, which marks the place where its city wall once stood, we felt the -first touch of spring...

...A rare priest — Father Johnson of the Cowley Brothers n Boston, for example— can give me a feeling of the sincerity and significance of bis movements when celebrating mass...

...There are cities in Europe where a great ado is made about ancient remains, but when one gets there the old is so lost in the new that it is impossible to get any real appreciation of the past...

...One little chap, a winter resident, we recognized, because his appearance, his acrobatic antics, and his cheery call were like those of his kind in Wisconsin...

...It was under those lofty petrified arches that...

...It depends, too, upon whether one talks with business men, laborers, clerics, or professors...

...But there are more subtle differences, which are of profounder significance, though the observer may easily go wrong hi regard to them...

...their little city is beautiful as well as novel...

...Has the chicadee remained unchanged while other species have so altered their plumage as to make them scarcely recognizable, or is it no trick for this restless little fellow to cross the ocean...

...On the surface nothing of either is visible...

...Religious masses are relative in value like every'hing else in this imperfect world...

...I cannot believe that the deeps of Germany's creative power have been sounded...

...And the strident horns of the royal automobiles, demanding the right of way, are no longer heard, while the royal palaces have been turned into art galleries or museums...

...The linden and lilac bud were swelling, crocusses and snowbells were in bloom, and the first bird arrivals were active and vocal...

...TO ONE who was in Germany before the war, the most striking change on his return is the absence of military uniforms...

...As the powerful organ, rising to the climax, was joined by the massive bells in the tower, so that the very building swayed in rhythm, men and women all about us wept silently and we found ourselves with tears in our own eyes...

...One finds them informed on tho new architectural motifs just making their appearance in America, on our religious struggle, our educational developments, our agricultural difficulties, In short, in our whole manner of life...

...How far this may go there is no way, at any rate for a traveller, to tell, but all classes complain of it with bitterness and energy...

...Some other monarch...

...Conditions are very slowly improving...

...The subdued daylight, the flickering candles< the odor of incens<| the gorgeous robes, the marvelous organ, the clear-voiced choir, the intoning priests, the worshipping throng combined to exert a strange uplifting influence...

...For it is obvious to the person whe steps inside the great cathedral, instead oi sticking his nose into a little guide book, that he is within what remains of a grand primeval forest ages ago turned into stone...

...At every turn of a corner one finds not a house, but a whole street, dating from the sixteenth or seventeenth century...