Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-12-11

September, 1914, and to this day the
majority of Germans have not heard
of the battle of the Marine!
Just after the English passed their
cOnscription law l was called to see
the kaiser at the great army headquar-
tiers, which at that time were at Pless.
Although the war had then lasted two
or three times as long as the Germans
had expected the kaiser masked the
depression he must have felt by put
ting ON a bold front.
"How foolish for England to start
CONSUMPTION now" he declared. "She
thinks she can accomplish in a few
months what it has taken Germany a
hundred years to attain. Armies and
officers cannot be developed over night.
We have never stopped preparing since
the days of Frederick the Great"
"Yes, your majesty, but the North
ern states in our Civil war put in con-
scription two years after the begin
ming of the war;" l suggested.
But just look how long your war
lasted" the kaiser replied quickly.
allies will feel what the power of Ger
many is long before English conscrip-
ton can avail them anything"
"And while England is slowly build
ing up her insignificant army" the
kaiser went on, "she will see Americas
navy and merchant marine constantly
growing and the dollar replacing the
80 II
finance. No, Davis, England will soon
be sick of the war and will look with
fear upon Americas growing power !"
The French army, too, was generally
belittled. and the Russians were be-
lieved to be absolutely negligible. The
French army was so poorly equipped
it was pointed out, that the officers
had to go to the field in patent-leather
boots, and on the Russian front, only
the first-line men had guns. the others
being armed with clubs!
Eventually, officers and soldiers re-
turning from the western front on fur
Tough or passing through the country
en- route from one front to the other
brought the report Of the defeat before
49, 1A.zsJ-, tysa rticinated. in
Paris. Soldiers VINO pssxv.~--,,-ss,,,. ]
that disastrous retreat wrote from tn,
new trenches to their friends and rel
atives telling of the terrible expert
ences they had undergone, when they
went for days with nothing to eat bu
raw potatoes and turnips which the,
picked from the fields.
| When those ronnrtc GpoIx, r,,oo<
through Germany the people began tt
realize that their generals in the wes
were not meeting with the same success
that Won Hindenburg had had In the
east and Won Hindenburg became the
idol OF the people Immediately, a fact
| that was very distasteful to the high
command.
| The kaiser's dislike of Won linden
burg was of long standing. He had
never forgiven that general for the mis-.
take he made during military maneuv.
ers in peace time when by q brilliant
stroke of strategy he had succeeded in
! capturing the kaiser's forces, including
| the kaiser and his whole staff!
l have referred in previous chapter
| to the kaisers unbounded confidence
after the Italian collapse in 1917.
NOW, we've got the allies !" he ex-
claimed, with an air of conclusiveness
which emphasized the optimism he
displayed.
After the capture of Roumana. he
exhibited similar degree of exulta.
ton. He believed that in that achieve
ment he had successfully solved the
food problem-the one cloud which
constantly darkened the kaiser's hori-
ZOn.
NOW the allies will never succeed in
starving u.s." he said to me in nv Of
nee shortly after the Roumanian drive.
with Roumania in our pockets and
oervla already ours, their wonderful
agricultural possibilities will supply
our food needs and foil our enemies
efforts to starve us. Indeed, they had
better look out for themselves. Don't
forget we have monopoly on the
potash mines of the world. Without
proper fertilization, American crops
will go on decreasing and decreasing
and they won't get any potash until we
get ready to let them have it |"
The failure of the Zeppelins from
military standpoint was undoubtedly
great disappointment to the German
people at large, who had counted so
much upon them to bring disaster to
England, but 1t cannot be said that the
kaiser shared their chagrin. On the
contrary, have reason to believe that
he never expected very much from that
arm of his military force except as it
might be useful to terrorize the civil
A day or two after Zeppelin's death,
in 1917, patient of mine, lady, hap