The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1918-12-05
TheKaiser as Knew Him for Fourteen Years
tcopyrisht. MA BY the Mcclure Newspaps syndicatsJ

lasted" the kaiser replied quickly. /,
''rhis var 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 will 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.
It was pointed out, that the officers
had to 60 to the field In patent-leather
boots, and on the Russian front. only
the first-line men had guns, the others
being ermed 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
atives telling Of the terrible expert
ences they had undergone. when they
went for days with nothing to eat but
raw potatoes and turnlps 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 Hindenburg became the
idol Of the people Immediately. q 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 G
ers In peace tire when by a brilliant
stroke Of strategy he had succeeded In
capturing the ka;ser's forces, including
the kaiser and his whole etaift
have referred IL o previous chapter
to the kaiser's ~unbGnnded confidence
after the Italian collapse in 1917.
"Now. we've got the allies!" he ex-
claimed, with an air Of concluslveneEs
which emphasized the optimism he
displayed.
After the capture Of Roumania, he
exhibited q similar degree Of exultn-
ton. He believed that In that achieve
ment he had successfully solved the
food broblem-the one cloud which
constantly darkened the kaiser's hori-
zon
; snow the allies will never succeed in
starving u.s." he said to me In my Of
flee shortly after the Roumanian drive.
with Roumania in u 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 1t"
The failure of the Zeppelins from O
military standpoint was undoubtedly q
great disappointment to the German
people ut large. who had counted SC
: much upon them to bring disaster tC
= England, but 1t cannot be said that thu
! kaiser shared their chagrin. On thu
contrary, l have reason to believe thai
: he never expected very much from thai
arm of his military force except as l
! might be useful TO terrorize the civi
population.
nj A day or two after Zeppeun's death
in 1917, u patient Of mine. u lady. hap
. pened to remark that It was too bat
4 that the count had not lived to see thu
triumph Of his invention. and when
:. saw the kaiser shortly afterwards
repeated her remark to see what h
would say.
~ II am convinced that the count live
long enough to see oil that the Ter
= pelins were capable Of accomplishing.
was his only comment. 1t recalled tn
answer he had given me some year
before when both Zeppelins and all
Il planes we're in their infancy and l ha
e asked him which held the grcate
- promise. 1--WE do not know. Tim
alone will tell" was his reply.
~ The last tine I conversed with tn
kaiser was ON November 20. 1917. U
to that time we had sent over 1900
,r troops, according to the figures whic
- have since been revealed by Secretar
r. Baker. According to the kaiser's II
formation. however. we had only 30
70 600 men In France at that time an
As he was of the opinion that we woul
,e never have many more.
II. america Is having a fine time tr!
ing to raise an army" he declare
RI s%atirically. ~ hear that 1000 mutinie
49, lcv tu Man Vnrk on1 ~