Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-15
GERMANY WILL WIN,
SAYS FRANK HARRIS
English Author Thinks Allies
Commanders Incompetent.
Defends "Allemagne."

Germany will win. AS somebody has
said. II YOU were watching two crews in
race, with the eight men in each boat
apparently evenly matched physically, yet
you knew that in one of the boats each
of the eight men would break every blood
vessel in his body to be first across the
finish line, which crew would you bet on 49,
Such is the view of the European situ-
alton expressed by Frank Harris, Irish
man, former editor of the Evening News
Fortnightly Review and Saturday Review
in England, and now a resident of France.
lie is one of Englands noted men of let
ters and in an article in a newspaper in
this country recently he made the state
ment that the Allies were hopelessly han
dlcapped by the mediocrity OF their COM
manders. The statement caused consld-
erable comment Mr. Harris is con-
flrmed radical in his literary as we'll as
his political beliefs and he was in Phila-
delpha to explain his Shakespearean
theories in lecture at Bryn Mawr Col
1eGe.
what can you expect" he told re-
porter, "of a nation shackled by an ar
chaic social system such as England's?
England, a country which. following an
absurd theory of primogeniture, concen-
trates its wealth and influence in an aris-
tocracy of dlers that believe a man is
disgraced who works. It's horrible.
"How can you make comparison with
4. I,n frI,+ Ia
there. Take just the matter of educa-
tion, Germany turns out from her uni.
versites 100000 men a year You have
got 10 amount to something to hold your
own under competition such as that.
They have an arlstocracy yes. But your
noble oftener than not Is poor man.
He is content and happy, and eager to
repay his country for what she has done
for him in education and training, and
will to that end serve her in time OF
stress, for little pay in any way he can,
whether 1t be as citizen or soldier. A
war is not won by numbers, ordnance or
resources, but by the spirit of nations
people, That is why Germany Is where
she Is today.
"When your German soldier hobbies off
a train minus a leg or an arm, how does
his mother or wife or sweetheart greet
m?-'congratulations,'
CONGRATULATIONS lot OlsllS VI SihthI III
the service of the fatherland. That is
Germany.
"As TO the present situation and future
Developments Well, for eight months
Germany has held back the Russian forces
in the east and sent aid to Austria. In
the west they have the better position on
conquered soil all along the line. What
has been done will be done, / say
Just what is your opinion of the vicious
views on the war expressed by the lead
ing literary men of England, such as
Wells, Shaw, Kipling and the rest?" Mr..
Harris was asked.
"A great deal of the work Is clever, but
the significant feature of all of II is the
ignorance of the real Germany, They
don't know whereof they speak"
Mr.. Harris lived I'm America for six
years during the late seventies. He
spent a similar length of time in Ger
many and has visited and lived In al
most every country in Europe and Asia.
The greater part of his life he has spent
in France, where he has lived on and on
for twenty-five years. He is one OF the
greatest living short story writers and is
one of the most noted contemporary
critics.
His library views are novel and inter
esting. Mark Twain, he says, was simply
rather than humorous and was
many times eNcelled i'm his own line by
Dickens. LongfelloW Is not so good as
the better newspaper poets; TennysOn
spoiled and acclaimed out of all due pro
portion to his worth Keats, he thinks.
ls the greatest OF English poets. AS to
noyelists. Mr.. Harris hands the palm
for all time TO Balzae rating second only
to him the American David Graham