Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-10-18

ing up her Insignificant army" tn
T kaiser went on, ''she Will see America
navy and merchant marine constantly
growing and the dollar replacing tn
pound as the unit OF the world
finance. No, Davis. England Will sool
be sick Of the war and viii look Will
fear upon Americas growing power +
The French army. too. was general,
bellttled. 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-llne 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
Paris. Soldiers who participated In
that disastrous retreat wrote from the
new trenches to their friends and rel
atives telling of the terrible expert
cnces 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 Hlndenburg had had in the
east and Won Hlndenburg became the
idol OF the people Immediately, fact
that was very distastefui 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 brilliant
stroke OF strategy he had succeeded In
capturing the kaisers forces, including
the kaiser and his whole staff
have referred In a previous chapter
to the kaIser's unbounded confidence
after the Italian collapse In 1917.
"Now. we've got the alliesl" 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
constantly darkened the kaiser's hori-
zon.
81 e.t4,aoaI 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 monopoly on the |
potash mines of the world. Without |
proper fertilization. American crops |
viii go on decreasing and decreasing |
and they won't get any potash until we
get ready TO let them have ii ]"
The failure of the Zeppelins from a
standpoint was undoubtedly
grent disappointment to the German
people NC large. who had counted so
much upon them to bring disaster TO
England, but IL cannot be said that the
kaiser shared their chagrin- On the
have reason to believe that
he never expected very much from that
arm OF his military force except SIS it
might be useful TO terrorize the civil
population.
A day or two after zeppelin's death.
Ia 1917. u patient Of mine, lady, hap
Dened 20 remark that IL was too bad
hat the count had not lived TO see the
OF his invention. and when |
saw the koiser shortly afterwards
repeated her remark to see what he
would say.
Il am convinced that the count lived
ong enough 20 see all that the Yep
lelins were capable of accomplishing"
auS his only comment. u recalled the
answer he had given me some years
icfore when both zeppelins and air
flames were In their infancy and had
ssked him which held the greater
Promise. "We do not know. Time
lone will tell" was his reply.
The last time ] conversed with the :
,alser Was on November ii. 1917. Up
q that time we had sent over 10000
roops. according 20 the figures which
laya since been revealed by Secretary !
lakor. According to the kaiser's In
however, we had only So !
100 men In France at that time and
ie was OF the opinion that we would
lever have many more.
America Is having fine tine try ;
ng to raise ar army" he declared |
atirlcally. II hear that 1.600 mutinied I
he other day in New York and re- /
used TO get on a transport. and
own In the Northwest composed prin- |
ipally OF citizens of Swedish blood I
efused to register at all We are get 9
ing excellent information about all
onditions In America" q
Shortly before this had come the rev. Z
latlons from Washington of the In 1
rigue of Count Won Luxburg. the Ger
ian minister to Argentina, and 1 knew I
there the kaiser was getting the ~