Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1918-11-08

finance. No, Davis, England will soon
be sick of the war and will look with
fear upon Americas growing power!
The French army, too, was generally
belittled. and the Russians were ne
lieved to be absolutely negligible. me
French army was so poorly equipped
it was pointed out, that the olhcers
had to go to the field in patent-leather
boots, and on the Russian front, only
the frst-line 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 De1ore
Paris. Soldiers who participated III
that disastrous retreat wrote from the
new trenches to their friends and rel
atives telling of the terrible expert
ences they had undergone, when they
went for days with nothing to eat Dut
raw potatoes and turnips which they
picked from the fields.
When these reports finally spread
through Germany the people began 10
realize that their generals in the west
were not meeting with the same success
that Won Hindenburg had had in the
east and Won Hindenburg became the
dol of the people Immediately, fact
hat was very distasteful to the high
Command.
The kaiser's dislike of-Von linden
nurg was Of long standing. He had
reTer forgiven that general for the mis-
axe ne made during military maneuv-
rs in peace time when by brilliant
,trolzc of strategy he had succeeded in
capturing the kaiser's forces, including
lie kaiser and his whole staff!
Lave referred in previous chapter
the kaiser's unbOunded confidence
Ter the Italian collapse in 1917.
.,:3w, we've got the allies!" he ex
...imcd, with an air Of conclusivenesF
II emphasized the optimism n
u>Di&yed.
After the capture Of Roumania, b
.x..:!.ited a similar degree of eNulta
n. lie believed that in that achieve
:ent lie had successfully solved II
GOD problcm-the one cloud which
.,,stantly darkened the kaiser's hcri
IA.
"Now the allies will never succeed Il.
-ntying u.s." he said to me in my o.
q shortly after the Roumanian drive
with Roumania in our pockets an
.;2rvia already ours, their wonderful
,gr;cultural possibilities will suppl
,ar food needs and foil our enemies
forts to starye US. Indeed, they hac
ueltcr look out for themselves. Don:
forget we have Il monopoly on tht
potash mines Of the world. Withou'
proper fertilization, American crops
will go on decreasing and decreasing
and they won't get any potash until WI
get ready to let them have it!'
The failure of the Zeppelirs from &
military standpoint was undoubtedly {
great disappointment to the Germal'
people at large, who had counted ST
much upon them to bring disaster t."
England. but it cannot be said that thu
kaiser shared their chagrin. On thu
contrary, have reason to believe that
he never expected very much from that
arm of his military force except as II
might be useful to terrorize the civ!
population.
A day or two after Zeppelin's death.
IN 1917, patient OF mine, lady, hap
pened to remark that it was too BAG
that the count had not lived to see the
triumph of his invention, and when |
saw the kaiser shortly afterwards i
repeated her remark to see what he
would say.
~ am convinced that the count lived
long enough to see all that the Yep
pelins were capable of accomplishing"
was his only comment. 1t recalled the
answer he had given me some years
before when both Zeppeiins and air
planes were in their infancy and had
asked him which held the greater
promise. awe do not know. Time
alone will tell" was his reply.
The last time l conversed with the
kaiser was on November 26, 1917. Up
to that time we had sent, over 10000
troops, according to the figures which
have since been revealed by Secretary
Baker. According to the kaisers in
formation, however, we had only 3d.
900 men in France at that time and
ne was Of the opinion that we would
never have many more.
America is having a fine time try
ing to raise an army" he declared
satirically. 81 hear that 1900 mutinied
the other day in New York and re-
fused to get on transport, and
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 rcT-
Citations from Washington of the in
trigue of Count ven LuXburg, the Ger
man minister to Argentina, and knew
where the kaiser was getting the in
formation he referred to. In nearly
every case, it appeared, the kaiser's in
formants were misleading him.
Both before and after we entered
the war the kaiser was thoroughly con-
vinced that we could play only a NOM
inal part in it 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.