Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-08-01
INSIDE STORY OF CONDITIONS
in GERMANY TOLDBY AMERICAN
WHO RETURNED FROM THERE

A prominent man-a pastor-in the
western part of North Dakota has
sent the Normanden in this city. a
copy Of IN interesting personal letter
from Milwaukee in which the corre-
spondent tel!s Of a conversation which
he recently had with a German
American who for sixteen years was
manager Of the German branch Of
n of the largest Industrial concerns
in America. This manager left Ger
many Immediately before America de-
clared that q state Of war existed.
In the letter he Is quoted Is saying:
THE food situation In Germany is
not as serious as we appear in this
country to believe, but that prices are
very high. ham costing $3.50 a pound
and butter $500. but that there is a
ed in the manufacture Of munitions
and other war equipment.
The people are war weary and h
morale Of the troops is seriously I'M
paired, az an instance of which he
stated that when the train stopped at
a station, the name of which has slip
ped my mind. he looked out Of the
window and noticed a large number
of soldiers on the platform who were
engaged in discarding their equip,
ment. Upon going out he discovered
SAASe AN 2 "o6 W J."
train and had mutinied, and that upon
being told by the officers they would.
be court martialed and shot, replied:
Troops Muttny and Refuse to Fight.
IF you r going to kill US you,
might just as well do it here. We re-
fuse to go back to the trenches.
"The train pulled out without tho
company. At the next station an Of
flcer got on, who. being advised Of the
QffYYn fiNn 10 1Iohtn0 1Ny no{1 chat the
same thing was happening all over
the country and that on many occa-
|slons in the trenches the men had re-
fused to charge when given the order,
and replied to the command:
Charge yourselves If you want to-"
H said that the Germans regard
ed the English by far the best and
most dangerous fighters and that they
would not give up as would the
mans when in a hopeless situation but
would fight to the death; that the
English have three times as many Of
the Germans as prisoners as the Ger
mans have of the English; that the
German people were assured by the
kaiser that England would be whip
ped by June LIST, and that the people
are beginning to doubt the successes
of the submarine campaign, and that
A40 A4AAAoSAA 40 Va LAS OgA4AASA e IlldI ~
cannot succeed.
Allies Are Supreme in Air.
1.-THE English and French have the
supremacy in the air, and the fact
that a large number Of English ma
chimes are destroyed is due to the dar-
ing Of the English aviators who fre-
quently descend to within one hun
dred or even fifty feet Of the ground
and after discharging their machine
guns resort to their revolvers.
THE Russian situation had revived
the hopes of the Germans to a con-
siderable extent and except for it Ger
many would have caved in before
this.
He says that our information in
regard to there being a dearth OF men
in France is not ri n that all of
the warning nations have more men
than they a handle; that france is
full Of Englishmen and that there are
over 100000 under arms in Eng
land; that American troops will be
more of a hindrance than a help, ex-
cept for the moral effect and that he
does not expect that more than 100,-
900 will be transported as they can
not be used and accommodated.