The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-10-04

| Hindenburg. idol of the German people
 and war leader of the Kaiser's forces has suffered the greatest defeat that has
 befallen Germany since Joffre's decisive victory on the Marne. The forces of | France and England not only captured the vital strongholds of Combles and
 Thepval; they thereby demonstrated that
 the whole Teutonic battle plan Is faulty;
 that the defensive system of the central
 powers is built on sand.
 l In the long view there are not, be-
 tween the armies of Foch and Haig and
 their final objective, Berlin, any defenses better and stronger than those which they
 have battered to dust at Thiepval and at Combles The hopes which the German
 people rested on their idol, Hindenburg,
 are already dead.
 ] He has already failed; failed decisively
 in the great inassed attack of September 20, in which he himself drove 5000 picked
 troops aganist the allies; failed as decis- 1 lively oH the defensive, in the swift and vitally important capture ot Conbies and Thepval. If the massive headed vet f eran of East Prussia has a mind still open to the light, he sh ...i see, !n tlle | loss of the powerful Eohenxollern re- doubt the visible handwriting on tho wall.
 Falkenhayn, it seems evident now, was able to read that handwriting, and for reading it, and interpreting it to his mas ter, he was dismissed from his high of- l flee and his post, with added powers, was given to Hindenburg. Two declara- tions, remarkable for intelligence and courage, were attributed to Falkenhayn. in the last days of August just before his T clearly told Kaiser Wilhelm that the present lines were untenable; that Bull
 garia was palpably doomed and must De abandoned: that Germany must with draw to the Rhine; that the eastern llne
 must be shortened by two-thirds. Ths Kaiser, we were told, submitted this dec@ laration to Field Marshal von linden burg, then batterng ineffectiyely against the Riga-Dvinsk trenches; Hindenburg furiously denounced it as cowardly and l childish. unworthy of German manhood | and German militarism. Falkenhayn was degraded and Hindenburg reigned in his stead
 What were Hindenburg's qualifications for directing virtually the entire opera 1 tions of the central empires, of Bulgaria
 and Turkey flor the immense powers in trusted to him by his Kaiser virtually
 meant that. Military historians will Pt ObaDly ody ehde, III tAAc WAOAO Wal, Hindenburg did only one thing. though
 he did that thing supremely we'll While General von Kluck was racing ahead to- ward defeat on the Marne, Russia inn provised two raids into East Prussia, under General Samsonoff of the Turkestan army, and General Rennenkampf. who had earned some fame as cavalry leader
 against Japan. Neither knew East Prus-
 sa well, but they went swiftly forward; ;
 to meet, in Samsonoff's case, defeat and
 death at Insterburg; in Rennenkampf s.
 equal defeat near Alnenstein. Hinderburg,
 an East Prussian, very familiar with ev-
 cry nook of this land of pine forests and
 morass, practiced in war maneuvers over
 every region of it. followed in actual war
 the movements he had developed in
 peace, and administered a crushing blow
 to the Russian raiders.