Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-24
students of the war more recently

students of the war more recently
| there.
| It Is going to be no picnic for the
allied armies to stop the contemplated
last desperate rush Of Germany's gray
hosts. and many a man will faii IN
defending the line. All this winter
there has been an ominous quiet back
of the celebrated twenty-four complete
lines of Notifications that are expected
to protect the line of the Rhine. but
this quiet has not included Bertha Won
Krupp's famous gun shop al Essen, ana
that great plant, together with the re-
that have gone up at Munich. has been
| buster than ever making the deadly
missiles and guns that are calculated
to do what three years of constant and
desperate effort have failed to achieve.
Millions Of Allied Shells.
Millions of shells of all calibers and
guns to use them have been made, and
you may be sure are now at the front
and close at hand to every battery and
| to every gun that is to take part in
the climax. Every available man has
been trained for his special work just
as carefully as the American troops
are being trained behind the lines in
France to Withstand the coming shock.
But the men of the German army are
| lack the keen interest of outraged patriot
ism to urge them on; they have been so
many times deceived by the vainglorious
boastings and promises of their kaiser
| and his satellites that they no longer &C
cept in blind faith the assurances that
victory is near at hand and peace, in
accordance with Prussian standards a
| matter of but a brief time and one more
EFFORT But these soldiers will be driven
into the mouths of the guns just as they
have been driven before. and hundreds of
thousands of human lives will be brutaily
sacrificed in order that the pride of self
styled war partner Of the Almighty may
be spared of accepting peace now and
without that sensefeSS slaughter. along
the humane lines laid down by President
Wilson and subscribed to by the allies of
the United States
Both the kaiser and his generals know
that the last moment is at hand and that
the present assault will be the last great
effort that Germany can ever launch. The
armies of imperial Germany will not fight
another great battle when they realize
the failure of the one now breaking forth.
They will rise in a revolt more hideouS
than anything Russia has experienced
when they are driven back defeated, their
| ranks uselessly thinned by many thou
sands. final realization of their vulner-
ability sinking through the Hun skull
and top of this certain demand by
their masters for still another sacrifice.
Unless the victory of the allies in
the coming assault is complete, such an
order is bound to come. and then will
follow the deluge which for more than
year now has been muttering and
threatening with Its 'premonitory symp-
toms of anarchy and revolt.
Men Will Kill Officers.
their men if they urge them to battle
or attempt to continue their former
brutality, and then will begin the riot
OF the return home, for these men will
not disarm. This wonderful military
machine, before which the world has
stood aghast; this perfection of CO.
ordination that Germany built for half
century, will tear itself to pieces in
insensate and terrible anger because of
its defeat.
The bloody terrors of the French
revolution will have been a casual
street riot compared with what Ger
many's armed millions of broken
hearted. disappointed soldiers will Gre
ate when they return to the places they
once knew as homes and find the devas-
tat1on that disease and starvation have
there wrought. They will realize that
they have been deceived with cruel de-
liberation by men who knew that Ger
many had no chance when her subma-
rlnes failed of their purpose to starve
the allies and bring England in suppli-
cation to her knees, and that the lives
of millions of their comrades have been
sacrihced in order that Wilhelm Won
Hohenzollern might for a little longer
hold the scepter of imperial power over
81, 000.O0 human slaves.
But before that time comes there is
going to be a. ferocious attempt to
break through the western lines, and
every ounce of man power and of gun
power will be brought into play to pro-
mote the rush. 1t is to be, according
to the latest information coming to me.
more of rush than a steady. prolonged
drive.
Germany has neither the material nor
the morale for prolongation of this
final effort, for If her artillery preuara-
tions last a week her army will grow
impatient. and lit is not far cry from
tt,Is to nervousness and from
that to rout. The men will do their
best now. because there is still some
little faith left in their hearts for .he
ieaders-their masters-and they have
Deen se5ooisd to believe that victory
man made peace and a return to their
homes for the remainins, millions who
have suffered untold fortunes for near
~ four years.
But the onslaught will have to he
vigorous and rapid or the mercury will
cool and leave the nerve racked Ger
man army at the mercy of the enemy
Thousands of these sc1dierghaveJ good
memories and. are rcsentfuI They do
not care to be chained to guns, that
they may have no opportunity to es-
Briton or furious Gaul after they
have defended their Position to the
limit of human capacity, and they have
many memories OF just this treatment
and sometimes worse.
Lulled by Boastful Lying.
But the ksiser has assured them that
| this is their chance to end it ALL Hin
denburg and Ludendorf have prepared
them. with every sort Of boastful 1y-
ing. to believe that the concentrated
effort now under way cannot fail
ard that they shall march in victory
through the houlevards of Paris, lust
az did the hosts of the present kaiser's
grandfather nearly half a century ago
Hindenburg is too wise military man
to believe he can do with war-weary
army what he has not been able to do
with fresh troops in their moments of
greatest strength and limitless ambition,
and there are thousands of tacticians
among the rank and file of his armies
who are quite as well aware of it.
| The German army is still a powerful
| force. well equipped and pretty well
| fed. and it will fight bitterly, but with
| forlorn hope. for there is not in it
| now the mysterious quality we call
| morale. without which battles are sell
dom won.
! The soldiers. not all of them having
completely lost faith, will fight hard
| and die like plague-stricken rats. un-
der the glittering promises of a long