Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-28
(Continued.)


One of the soldiers who had been
! lighting on the Carpathian front
came back on furlough, and what
he told me illustrates very clearly
| the iron discipline which prevails
! in the German ranks.
"One night We were told to so
! over the top early in the morning" ="
he said. All we had had to eat that
! day was small piece of black
! bread. We told our officers that
we would refuse to bulge out of the
! trenches unless we received decent
| food. Our threats were ignored,
but that night we were given another
small piece of black bread. Still
we grumbled and insisted that we
would refuse to fight unless we were
properly fed. The hour arrived for
the advance, and when the signal
was given, hungry and angry as we
were, we clambered over the top
! like flock OF sheep, and went for
ward at the command of our OF
ticers as we had always done"
AS long as the officers remain
stanch to the Kaiser, therefore, lit
| tie may be expected in the way of
successful revolution, no matter
! how discontented and rebellious the
! people at large may grow, but l
! believe that the time will surely
come when the officers themselves
will turn against their government.
There may be two revolutions.
| The civilians, consisting of women,
old men and youths and others who
! have not been called into the army,
may rise up, but their effort will be
| in vain. The defeat of ruoh an up
rising, however, may be the signal
| N crra far in which q nnrfiHn
| of the army itself will take part, and
| then a civil war will result which
will have no counterpart in the
| worlds history.
| The basis for this belief lies in
the fact that the officers of the Ger
man army realize the extent of the
| distress prevailing throughout the
| country. Their families, as we'll as
| those of the rank and file, are suf-
! fering from undernourishment and
/ privations, and they know, even
/ better than their interiors, the eX-
! tent of the reverses which the Ger
man army has suffered and will con-
! tinue to suffer and how the govern
ment has misrepresented actual
conditions.
! If the German officers consisted
entirely of men of the old school
mon who were willing to fight for
! hghting's sake and who would rather
continue the war until the last Ger
man had dropped than give in-we
. could not look for much in this di-
rection.
But the ravages of war have dis
posed of large percentage of these
| bred-in-the-b bone officers and their
places have been taken by civilians
who have been raised from the
ranks Therein lies the hope of
successful revolution.
When these civilian officers, who
at heart are still civilians, and de-
spite their exalted positions are no
different essentially from the men
they lead, become convinced that
the German cause is not only wrong
but hopeless. they are apt to listen
to the grumblings of their men and
side with them. Then the break will
come.
will not venture a guess as TO
when that will be. but feel sure
that it will certainly come about.
Fortified by a large portion of the
army, the German people will at last
turn on their rulers and destroy the
throne and the whole Hohenzollern
regime.
In this connection. recall al
prophecy made early in the war by
an honored colleague of mine, an
American dentist who had lived and
practiced in Germany for forty
years and understood the German
people and their rulers as well, per-
haps, as any man alive. He was n
leader of his profession and a man
whose judgment on all things was
most accurate. He was in close
contact with many leading figures of
the German nobility.