Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1918-11-22

planes were in their infancy and / had
asked him which held the greater
promise. 1--WE do not know. Time
alone will TELL" was his reply. A.
The last time l cOnversed with the
kaiser was on November 26, 1917. Up
to that time we had sent over 169. 600
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
never have many more. AZ -
America is having a fine time try
ing to raise an army he declared
satirically. II hear that 1900 mutinied
the other day In New York and re-
fused to get on transport, and q
town in the Northwest composed prin-
cipally of citizens Of Swedish blood
refused to register at all! We are get
ting excellent information about all
conditions In America"
Shortly before this had come the rev.
elations from Washington of the In
trigue of Count Won Luxburg, the Ger
man minister to Argentina, and I knew
where the kaiser was getting the in
formation he referred to. In nearly
. every case, 1t appeared, the kaiser's in
formants were misleading him.
Both before and after we entered
the war the kaiser was thoroughly con-
WINGED that we could play only q NOM
inal part in 1t so far as man power
was concerned and his assurance on
that point undoubtedly accounted for
his decision to carry through his sub
marine program even though it re-
suited in bringing us into the war.
do you realize how many tons OF
shipping it takes to ship single SOL
dier?' he asked me on one occasion.
+ confessed my ignorance on that
point. n.
"Well, 1t takes six tons to the man!
To send over an army of 10000 men,
therefore, your country would require
100000 tons of shipping in addition
to the tonnage required for regular
traffic. Where is it coming from. with
my submarines sinking the allied YES
sells faster than they can ever be re-
placed? My U-bOats are doing won
derful work and we are prepared to
take care Of all the troops America
may try to land in France" sS
"How foolish for America to have
come into the war;" he went on. IT
she could succeed in landing real
army in France, what good would it
do2 America can see how easy it was
for me to break through and to cap
ture 100000 of the Italians, and they
must realize that I can break through
on the western front and do the same
thing there. If America had kept out
of the war she would have gone on
making untold profits and when peace
was finally declared she would have
been in most enviable position
among the nations of the world. AS 1t
is, Wilson will never have seat at
the peace table If can help it, and
now America shall have to pay all the
costs Of the war!" Evidently he imag-
ined that his triumph would be SO
complete that there would be no peace
table, but that the warning nations
would be compelled to accept the
terms he offered them, in which event,
knowing the magnanimity of the Ger
man makeup, should say the world
at large would have to be content with
very little. a. .- s
How the kaiser feels now that the
failure of the U-boats to intercept
American troop ships must be pain-
fully apparent to him, and America
has so overwhelmingly overcome the
shortage of shipping, don't know, but
it is more than probable that for some
time to come the real situation will, at
any rate. be successfully concealed
from the German people. know that
the failure of the U-boat campaign was
unknown to the Germans up to the
time left Berlin-in January, 1918.
While the kaiser and the Germans
generally felt confident that we would
never be able to send many men
across, they professed to feel little
concern even If we did.
According to some of the German Of
ficers with whom spoke, even If we
landed 100000 men in France 1t
would not be enough to break the
deadlock, as the Germans were taking
similar number of trained troops
from the Russian front. The only
menace of American participation in
the war lay in the possibility that we
might add considerably to the allied
air strength. Man power alone, they
commended, would never be sufficient to
help the allies much, but overwhelming
superiority in the air might occasion
the Germans some annoyance.
The. kaiser himself had but poor
opinion of the fighting qualities of the
American soldier so far as modern war
requirements are concerned.
1.-THE American soldier would pos
sibly give a good account Of himself
in open fighting" he declared, "but he
is not built for the kind of warfare he
will encounter in France. He lacks
tho stoliditv to endure life in the