The Washington herald., 1918-07-30
Exeunt the Crown Prince.

The second battle of the Marne ought to reduce
the precious prince to that position Of mill
tsry inconsequence he occupied after the failure of
Verdun.
The vainglorious Hohenzollern heir apparent
ought to be self-revealed in the garb of the nom
entity that he really is He has been posing before
the German people as a warrior and strategist
As the leader of the extremists of the military
party, he has been accepted a symbol of militia
rism at its worst. The real futility of trying to
patch up peace with Germany it exists today,
no matter how alluring the terms may be, is shown
in the fact that this impossible of royalty
viii follow the present Kaiser on the throne. As
sinister personality as the German Emperor is,
he is almost angel of light compared with his
hallow-pated, war-mad offspring.
The defeat the Marne ought to settle the
fate Of the crown prince in the eyes Of the world
and ought to force Junkerism the defensive once
in the crucible of German public opinion. The
retreat progresses day by day, hour by hour
Surely hour of reckoning must be at hand in
Germany. Ludendorf can longer shine forth as
invincible knight, Siegfried who can carve the
yearned-for peace with the conquerng steel of his
sword His star no longer be in the ascendant
mot exactly. OF course, he will not suffer the
fate of Moltke and Falkenhayn-not for the present
at least, for there is no successor at hand. He
will feverishly work to restore his fallen name his
broken prestige, and perhaps some new stroke at
the allied line is in the making. 1t is GER
tain that the desscating effect of this defeat upon
Germany, this stab to their spirit, will drive the
Emperor into that frame of mind where he will
demand new and unheard-of miracles from his
wearied army. No one knows better than he that
the German mind has certain predisposton to
melanchoa, as is proved by the high suicide rate in
Germany, the highest in the world, and by many
manifestations of violent morbidity. The German
spirit must be bouyed up constantly. 1t has been
stimulated in the face of its trials and tribuations
by victory upon victory. But now the stock of
victories is running low, and the miltarsts will be
hard put to it to squeeze any more of them out
the West front
The crown price partially retrieved his military
reputation by the third offensive of the present cam
paign-the which broke through the Chemn
des Danes and went clean through to the Marne
before it stopped Now it is scrapped again
One military critic says: Had Ludendorf been
governed by purely military considerations he
would by the middle of last week. have drawn out
of the lower part of the Scissors -Marne- Rheims
Vesle quadrangle and headed his armies for the
Vese the Aisne. But political considerations in
terfered The crown prince was in nominal COM
mand OF the German forces in Champagne. Must
the heir apparent to the imperial German crown
again be reduced to the level which he stood
after his CHASTITY failure before Verdun. Luden-
dorfs wavering strategy of the last four or FIVE
days IS doubtless to be explained by the necessities
Of a window dressing operation for the benefit of
the crown princes fame"
But it is impossible to salvage the military rep
utation Of the crown prince. Truth has a grim way
of coming into its own. Even when confronted
with German stolidty, and with the awe-inspiring
resources of falsi6cation of the German System"
truth Crushed to earth will rise again. in
Germany. 1t is irresistible in the end. And truth
perhaps will overtake and smite the present rulers
Of the mad empire long before the allied armies are
ready to furnish the finishing blow.