Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-10-16
Defeat of the German Army
New York Evening Post.


of fear which military defeat has cast around the
heart of the German people without recalling
the relation of the German army to the German
people. Kaiser metaphysics has exalted the
state" The idea of the state as super
organism has been the boosted contribution OF
the German mind to the progress OF CIVILIZATION
But too often when Germans have said the
state they have meant the army. with his
army Frederick the Great built the greatness OF
Prussia With his army Bismarck built the
German empire. The army has openly and
boastfuy been characterized as the defense and
cement OF German greatness. In ms own
thoughts and in the popular view William ii
has been first the war lord and only secondarily
the emperor. In the army the genius OF the
German people has been described as attaining
its richest fruion. In the army there found
self-expresson all those admirable qualities
which German modesty has been so fond OF
nopolizing-oyalty, discipline, righteousness
forethOught, education. By their own confeS-
sion the Germans have put into their army the
best of thenSelves-and now the German army
has been defeated.
This is the truth which the events of the last
six months have borne in upon the German con-
seriousness. This is the thought which is as gall
and NORWOOD to the Junker soul. Had Ger
many been starved into submission, had it been
driven into defeat by exhaustion of man power,
had it succumbed to revolution from within,
there would have been measure of consolation
for the war lord and his adjutants. But at the
present moment Germany stands defeated
through none of these weapons. 1t has been
beaten down by the weapon of its own choice
and worship, the sword. The kaiser even today
speaks of Germany's unequal fight against
world of enemies. That is true only in the sense
that ultimate German defeat was assured Ul-
timatey Germany's man power was bound to
dry up, its food supplies would have vanished,
how re Ct fha,r
tiers. But the simple fact is that none of these
causes have operated, except to minor degree,
in the historic period from March q, when
Germany almost had victory within its grasp, to
the present day. when Germany confesses defeat.
Put away the war before March q, suppose
the world struggle to have begun then, and how
its opponents in the west with an army which,
in spite of contemporary official denals from
allied quarters, we now know was stronger than
the allied armies by quarter OF million men.
At the end of the May offensive it was>stronger,
according to some observers, by half a million
men. When Germany began its great try for
victory in March it was stronger in war ma
teral. 1t had goodly portion of the ZOO
cannon captured from the Italians last autumn
and the guns and munitions presented to it by
the bolsheviki. 1t had, finally, the advantage
of united command. By all tests, therefore
men, material, leadership and morale, the kaiser
was assured of victory.
Instead Of victory, William II envisages de-
feat. The change has been brought about by
no miracle We speak of our own army as hav-
ing turned the tide of war, but the effect was
not produced by the brute strength of American
numbers. At the present time it is doubtful
whether much more than half million Amer
leans are in the front lines 1t is doubtful
whether the fighting forces of the allies on July
I a1aI+ lo bao, II,
Germans outnumbered the allies on March II. !
Nor, after the enormous captures of allied guns
and munitions could our advantage in war ma
terial have been very great. Yet the allies have
compelled Germany to sue for peace. For the |
moment we need not consider the ways in which |
this astounding result has been brought about
by steadfastness, 4 by prodigies of energy by
unity and inspired leadership The bare fact is
eloquent; what the German army set out to do
and failed, the allied armies, with no superior |
initial advantages, have accomplished On
March q the Germans began a kaiser battle for
world domination, and have been beaten.
In tracing the march Of events on the map, |
hardly enough stress has been laid on the allies
prisoners and-the Germans introduced the
word-booty. Prisoners and booty have been
from the beginning of the war the favorte Ger
man measure of victory. The underlying idea
has been, no doubt, that enemy dead and wound
ed only testify to the enemys resolution but
enemy captives and guns testify to your oppo-
nents declining morale and your own superior
leadership Today the test is turned against the
Germans. In less than three months they have
lost close to 275,000 men, more than 5000 can
non and nearly $4,000 machine guns. The only
parallel the Germans can cite are the democrat |
lied Italians last Autumn, the unarmed, starry
ing Russian hordes in 1915 That close to 300,-
600 German soldiers should have gone into the
prisoners cages in IL weeks that the incom-
parable German army should be yielding and
breaking like so many "decadent" Mediterran-
cans, like so many uncvilized Slavs,ts a phe-
nomenon to strike panic into the German heart
The end of all things may we'll be approaching
Gott, is defeated.