Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1918-10-04
The Kaiser as | Knew linn
for Fourteen Years
@S9
By ARTHUR N. DAVIS. D. D. S.


naO sent seventeen hundred pounds of
sausages to one regiment within a
week, and when l asked her why she
had been so generous she replied that
her chauffeur was q member of the
regiment!
The extent to which the country's
resources were sQuandered in those
early months is evidenced by the fact
that the soldiers had such an excess
Of ill-f1tting wooden wearing apparel
that they used many of the knitted ar
ticles as earpieces and covers for their
horses. No one had the slightest idea
that the time might come when the
whole nation would be clothed in pa
perl
At this late day it can hardly be
necessary to establish how thoroughly
prepared the Germans were for the
war, but an incident which occurred in
the early days of the conflict may not
be out Of place to show the self-satis.
fed and confident attitude which all
the Germans assumed.
Two officers sitting at a table in an
-out-Of-dOor cafe shortly after the war
began overheard one Of several ladies
who were passing remark: Look at
those officers sitting there drinking.
Why are they not at the front fight
ingY One Of the officers got up and,
approaching the ladies', said: "Our
work was completed months ago. We
worked from early morning till late at
night on plans which our armies are
now carrying out. 1t is our time to
rest"
The resistance that France would be
able to put up was always very lightly
estimated, and ii the intervention Of
England was at all taken into consid-
GRAFTON, the comparatively small army
she could place In the field was re-
garded as but q drop in the bucket COM
pared with the well-trained German
horde that was ready to sweep across
the border. How could England's $4,000
men cope with Won Kluck's 100000 or
the hastily modified French armies re-
sist the thoroughly prepared, equipped
and well-disciplined German warriors?
It Is really not to be wondered at
that the Germans firmly believed that
they would bring the allies to their
knees within comparatively few
weeks and that the conQuering Ger
man armies would celebrate Sedan
day, September 2, in Paris. What &C
tually happened is, of course, too well
known here to require recital, but l
know that the Germans were kept in
absolute ignorance of the marvellous
resistance the allies were able to put
up in those critical days of August and
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
CONSUMPTION law ! 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 bold front.
"How foolish for England to start
c0nscriptiOn now" he declared. "She
thinks she can accomplish in a few
months what 1t 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 Greatr
Eyes. your majesty, but the North
ern states in our Civil war put in con-
scription two years after the begin
rinO off bn c,,nnoc<aI
'But just look how long your war
lasted" the kaiser replied quickly.
"This war won't last that long. The
allies will feel what the power of Ger
many Is long before English conscrip-
tion can avail them anythingi''
"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
pound as the unit Of the worlds
finance. No, Davis, England will soon
be sick Of the war and will look with
fear upon Americas growing poweri'
The French army, too, was generally
belittled. and the Russians were be-
lieved to be absolutely negligible. The
French army was SO poorly equipped,
1t was pointed out, that the officers
had to 90 to the field In patent-leather
boots, and on the Russian front. only
the first-line men had guns, the others
being armed with clubsl
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
Paris. Soldiers who participated In
that disastrous retreat wrote from the
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 but
raw potatoes and tnrnlps which they
picked from the fields.
When these reports finally spread
through Germany the people began to
realize that their generals In the west
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, fact
that was very distasteful to the high
command.