The Parker post., 1918-02-23
GERMANY MUST
our BY SPRING
Collapse Is Predicted by Ameri.
can Who Recently Escaped
From Country.
PEOPLE SUFFERING ACUTELY
internal Conditions Far Worse Than
Pictured-Some War Loans to Be
Repudiated-Austria Is Un-
able to Break Away.

Zurich.-An American citizen has
arrived here with an amazing story Of
internal conditions in Germany.
Since war was declared this man,
whose identity is kept secret at his
own request, has lived in Germany.
He has worked with Germans, dwelt
with them, been one of them, and has
acquired an intimate knowledge of
conditions existing in Germany.
In his opinion Germany is suffering
acutely now, and dissatisfaction and
worse reign in certain strata of her
army and navy. Recent mutinous up
risings have had to be sternly re-
pressed and the mutineers shot.
Thoughtful Germany, he thinks com
prising men of the Ballin type, is des-
perately eager for peace, and secretly
eager to end the war before America
has been utterly alienated.
Feared Army Service.
This man left Germany early in Oc-
tober, because he had reason to fear
that he was to be impressed for mill
tary service.
'The economic situation in Ger
many" he says, ''is far worse than
any one on the outside realizes, Is so
critical that I for one look for a
break, a collapse, next spring or late
in the winter. Nor are the good crops
that one hears boasts about every once
in c,A oA< 30 e;+x
tion materially.
Throughout the German people
there Is what amounts to a hatred of
America, and this hatred has been
carefully concentrated on President
Wilson, because it is easier to hate
man than a nation-especially ma
ton that is the home Of pretty nearly
every ones relative.
Do Not Hate America.
"But the big men of Germany, the
men who have to look ahead and
guide the empire after the war, do not
hate America. They feel too keenly
that they need America, and ttuy
would like to stem the tide of hate be-
fore 1t becomes mutual and the United
States Is alienated, perhaps for all
time.
'They know that after the war there
is only one country in the world where
they can get the money they will need,
America, and they are worrying a-plen-
ty nowadays
'They, and all Germany, want in
creasingly peace that shall specify,
among other things, the right to pur-
chase raw as well as finished materials
anywhere in the world on the same
terms as any other nation.
Every indication points to probable
confiscatton Of property and repudia-
ton Of perhaps half the war loans af-
ter the war. Even the percentage of
property to be confiscated is being
talked of, and 1t seems probable that
the government will take 20 per cent
Of everything.
t To NuIIlfye War Loans.
ION the other hand, 1t seems prob
able from all hear that an even half
Of all outstanding war loans will be
nullified. Fifty per cent will be repaid,
and the other so per cent will either
be Cancelled or will merely continue to
pay interest-will be sort Of perpet-
ual investment, the capital for which
cannot be realized.
''As surely as anything can be pre-
dicted there will be In the central pow
ers a series Of laws forbidding emigra-
ton, and In anticipation of them count
less Germans today are talking about
ways and means of getting away af-
ter the war. The first German ship
that lands In America after hostilities
will leave 20 per cent of its crew be-
hind.
''It is becoming clearer and clearer
to Germans every day that all the
talk that has gone the rounds about a
Central Europe after the model of
Professor Naumann and others will be
out of the question.
Contrary to the belief that seems
to be almost universal outside of Ger
many, I really believe that pan-Ger-
manisn is on the decrease among the
masses Of the people, and this despite
the increased noise about it every
where in Germany and the intensive
way in which it is being encouraged.
The reason for this is that more and
more the German people are coming
to realize what a catastrophe 1t will
be for them after the war is over If
they are hated in all the world Pan
Germanisfn, they are coming to feel,
is likely to intensity the feeling against
them, and thereby make their econ
omic struggle. in the future more diff
cult