The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-09-17
THE KAISER AS KNEW HIM.
Continued from Second Page)

thinks she can accomplish In q few
months what 1t has taken Germany
hundred years to attain. Armies and
officers cannot be developed over night.
We have never stopped preparing since
the days of Frederick the Great"
Eyes. your majesty. but the North
ern states in our Civil war put in con-
scription two years after the begin
ming of the war;" suggested.
"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-
ton can avail them anything!"
"And while England Is slowly build
ing up her Insignificant army" the
kaiser went on, "she viii 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 powerw
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 go to the field In patent-leather
boots. and on the Russian front. only
the first-line men had gums, 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
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 turnips 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.
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 naneuv-
ers In peace time when by a brilliant
stroke of strategy he had succeeded In
capturing the kaiser's forces, including
the kaiser and his whole staff
have referred in previous chapter
to the kaiser's 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 Roumania, 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
zon.
s'Now the allies will never succeed in
starving u.s. he said to me in my Of
fee shortly after the Roumanian drive.
with ROumania in our pockets and
Servia 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 a 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 a
military standpoint was undoubtedly q
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 terrorixe the civil
population
A day or two after Zeppelin's death.
in 1917, patient OF mine. lady, hap
pened to remark that 1t was too bad
that the count had not lived to see the
triumph of his invention, and when
saw the kaiser shortly afterwards l
repeated her remark to see what he
would say.
Il am convinced that the count lived
long enough to see all that the Yep
peltns were capable OF accomplishing, "
was his only comment. 1t recalled the
answer he had given me some years
before when both Zeppelins and air
planes were In their infancy and l had
asked him which held the greater
promise. 1--WE do not know. Time
alone will tell" was his reply.
The last time / conversed with the
kaiser was on November 26, 1917. Up
to that time we had sent over 10000
troops, according to the figures which
have since been revealed by Secretary
Baker. According to the kaiser's In
formation, however, we had only 3d.
600 men in France at that time and
he was of the opinion that we would