The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-11-16
INFORMATION
FROM THE INSIDE

Ihere mas Just arrived IN berne
from Germany a naturalized Ameri-
can who has lived in Germany thru
out the war, worked in German sea-
port cities, passing for or being con-
sidered a German subject, mingling
not only with the common people, but
ellis of the high.
In his opinion Germany is suffer-
| ing acutely now and dissatisfaction
and worse reigns in certain strata of
her army and navy. Recent muffin
Gus uprisings have had to be sternly
repressed- and the mutineers shot.
Thoughtful Germany, he thinks,
comprising men of the BALM type, is
desperately anxious for peace and
secretly to- end the war before Amer.
lea has been utterly alienated.
This man left Germany early in
October, because he had reason to
fear that he was going to be inn
pressed for military service. Ths
German government had refused to
recognize sthe validity of his Ameri-
can naturalization since he failed to
comply with the law existing in 1913
and did not seek the consent of the
German government to his step. To
get out he had to induce the Span
ish embassy to bring pressure to bear
on the German government. On
reaching Switzerland one of his first
steps was to seek the Associated
Press correspondent, to whom he
first proved satisfactorily his Amer
lean citizenship, then volunteered
such information as he possessed
about Germany as the duty of pat
riotic American citizen. Strangely
enough, at the very moment he was
telling his, story with details about
mutinies in the German navy, the
German minister of marine, Admiral
Won Capelle, was announcing the
naval mutinies to the reichstag.
"The economic situation in Ger
many" he says, sis far worse than
anyone on the outside realizes, is so
critical that | for one look for a
break, collapse, next spring or late
in the winter. Nor are the good
crops that one hears boosted about
the situation materially.
eThrougheut the German people
there is what amounts to a hatred of
America, and this hatred has been
carefully concentrated on President
Wilson because it is easier to hate a
man than nation, especially ma.
tion that is the home of pretty nearly
everyene's relative.
But the big men of Germany, the
men who have to look ahead and
guide the empire after the war, do
not hate America They feel too
keenly that they need America, and
they should like, to stem the tide of
hate before it becomes mutual and
the United States are alienated, per,
hapss for all time.
They know that after the war
there is only one country in the
world where they can get the money
they shall need, America, and they are
worrying a plenty nowadays. They,
and all Germany, want increasingly a
peace that shall specify, among other
things, the right to purchase raw as
well as finished materials anywhere
in the world on the same terms as
any other nation.
Every indication points to prob
able confscation of property and re-
pudiation of perhaps half the war
loan totals after the war. Even the |
percentage of property to be confis-
Gated is being talked of, and it seems
probable that the government will
take twenty per cent of everything.
"0n the other hand it seems prob
able from all hear that an even half |
of all outstanding war loans will be
nullified. The seventh will suffer ex-
actly as the first and the first as the !
seventh. Fifty per cent will be re-
paid, and the other fifty per cent will
either be cancelled or will merely
continue to pay interest-will be
sort of perpetual investment, the
capital for which cannot be realized.
As surely as anything can be pre-
dicted there will be in the Central
Powers a series of laws forbiddine
emigration. And in anticipation of
them countless Germans today are
talking about ways and means of
getting away after the war. South
and North America, and peculiarly
enough New Zealand and Australia,
are the Ravens to which they speak of
fleeing. The first German ship that
lands in America after hostilities will
leave fifty per cent of it's crew be-
hind.
1T is becoming clearer and clearer
to Germany day after day that all the
talk that has gone the rounds about
a Central Europe after the model of
Professor Nauman and others will be
out of the question.
Contrary to the belief that seems
to be almost universal outside of Ger
many, | really believe that Pan-Ger-