The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-11-25

| such important. factors as they are now
! adays, their presence or their absence
! makes all the difference between victory
and defeat Tradesmen, day laborers and
clerks cannot be made efficient soldiers
4 in one year or in two. Neither can law
yers, learned professors or doctors become
! competent officers fit to cope with the
very superior class of officers that for
generations-since Frederick the Great,
! in fact-Germany has made such strenu-
Gus efforts to create and educate and
whose latent talents she has left nothing
undone to develop to the highest pitch.
| When it comes to the tug of war Gull
tivated brains tell more than In any
business in which man can engage. Won
| Hindenburg says in his interview: 'Mu-
| nitions are not all, but the morale of the
| troops bring the final decision and the
| morale of the Germans and the Austro-
| Hungarian troops is superior to their
| adversaries. The main thing is discip-
| line; a discipline based on the complete
| education of every individual man."
| That is the German idea and 1t has been
| the secret of her success in everything
she has undertaken in peace and in war
and no one can deny her success in every
| line of effort.
| How different it has been with the Eng
I fish. Their army officers are all wealthy
| aristocrats who went into the army more
| for sport than to make a life and death,
| mind, soul and body profession of it.,
| as the German does. He shoots grouse
| on the mountains of Scotland in autumn
and dances with the ladies' in the win
| ter and struts around in plain clothes
| like young society bucks at other times.
| His profession Is only side issue to
| him. This Is what the Kaiser had in
| mind, no doubt, when he referred to the
! contemplate little army of England"
IT, TN ~Itr.ll @,,,s1 rtb M
\ fighting men and John, Pat and Sandy
make a team that is hard to beat, and
it is their pluck and bulldog courage that
| has won the day for England in the
past.
England has left the mana enient OF
her national affairs in the hands of an
| incompetent class, hereditary aristoc-
racy whose very existence is due to the
| survival of the unfit and whose wits were
never sharpened by the necessity for
! earning their dinners before they ate
them; who never did anything useful in
| their lives, and who look down upon and
\ despise all who do. But now England is
| paying the penalty at the rate of 100000
/ lives per month, the flower of England s
| manhood, and the end is not yet.
1t was we'll known to England's leaders
| that Germany was making feverish eff
| forts for many years to get ready for
| this, the greatest war of all time Yet,
| they met it, unprepared, or if they did
not know what Germany was doing,
where were their eyes and their brains?
| When Lord Salisbury was prime min
| lister, he even ceded Heligoland to Ger
many. Now, it is an impregnable Gil
| braltar, facing the chief city of England
and a perpetual menace. Any trades
| man or shopkeeper in England would
have had more sense and foresight than
to do such a thing. That Gallipoli fiasco
was a piece of monumental imbecility
from beginning to end The shooting OF
those insurgents in cold blood last spring
| in Dublin was another blunder worse
than crime. They surrendered as pris-
oners of war and England had no more
right to shoot them than General Grant
had to stand Robert E. Lee against a
wall and shoot him after he had surren-
dered at Appomattox. 1t looks as II the
gods had determined to destroy England.
may have regarded that revolt, they can
only look with horror, detestation, and
disgust at the bloodthirsty brutes that
perpetrated such an outrage. AS II there
was not bloodshed enough already. But
the Almighty Himself, quickly showed
His displeasure at such action by taking
away the only brainy leader Can Irish
man, at that which England has had
thus far, when Kitchener was drowned
off the Orkney Islands.
With such incompetent leaders, both
in camp and in cabinet, tbs folly for
England to hope for success in this con-
flct and it will be worse still, with her
economically after the war if she does
rot change her leaders and her tactics,
for Germany will cut her out of every
market in the world by her more skillful
workmanship. England's slack, slovenly
and slow ways are out of date and it
will be no use to shoulder Germany out
of her way as she has done with others
in the past. Germany won't take it. But
before this war is over. Germany will
tame the pride of England. She needs
| it badly Respectfully.
JOSHUA FRANKLIN.
Pyriton, Clay county. November 10, 1916