Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-24
Former Vice Consul in Saxony
Says He Will Be
Overthrow.
VAST ALLIED MUNITIONS ::
SPELL DEFEAT FOR HUN
Swashbuckling Officers Will Then
Be Slain by Troops Lulled by
Boasting Lies.
BY A. CURTIS ROTH,
Former American Vice Consul at
Plauca, Saxony.
Copyright, 1918.

Copyright. 1881
Germany has reached the
apex of her military power and is.
about to glide down the rapids
and plunge over the cataract into
the depths"
So says a German-born Ameri-
can citizen who recently visited
411e and who has. served in the
German army, man who hates
the Prussians. From him and
from other friends who have lived
there and from keen memories
from my old German field of ac.
tivity- l am able to add that Prus-:
sianism, with its naughty con-
tenapt foethe rights Of manlia,6
is about to have its final day and
I that from its ashes will arise the
phoenix of true German culture
This new Germany will be greet
ed by a rehabilitated world and
given brotherly hand in its eff
forts toward paying the tre-
meudons debt it owes civilization.
Events that have recently occurred
were predicted to me more than two
years ago by officers in the German
army, who went to tight the battles
of the Hohenzollerns with cherries
hearts and a clear conviction that the
final end would never justify the
means.
Hated Bayonet.
These officers were, of course. not
Prussians They were Saxons and Ba-
varians. men born and reared in an
atmosphere of commercial and artistic
achievement, who hated a bayonet-
save for defense-as completely as they
loved a loom or a beautiful painting
or a creation of a master of music,
who believed in the brotherhood OK
man. the extension of commerce by
fair competition and never in the Prus-
sian axiom that might makes right
They told me then that, the rush ON
Paris having been stopped at the
Marne, when Germany's gray millions
poured through Belgium in resistiess
waves: the attack on Verdun having
been thrown back with hundreds cx
thousands of German corpses as tn
penalty Of ambition. neither Paris nor
Verdun would ever fall TO German
arms and that the war had then
reached the stage where it would be
fought to the final exhaustion OF the
vanquished..
II Hindenburg in three years, they
argued, could not advance single
foot beyond the original conquest OF
northern France. he cannot do 1t now.
with a depleted army, shattered
morale and the clamor OF the starvinG
mothers, wives and children Of his sols
diers encouraging this army's hatred
and contempt to replace what were
once fear and respect for power.
Heard Kaiser Cursed.
When people who have been ruled
by the iron hand of an autocrat and
who, like dumb beasts, have accepted
that rule, suddenly begin to damn their
kaiser openly and to laugh in ecornfui
derisfon at the picture or name of that
kaiser's heir, il is not difficult to note
the direction of the wind And this.
was done more than a year ago. in
INV presence in a city in Saxony. where
I heard men and women cursing the
emperor and saw the weakened chill.
dren and cripples sneer at the picture
of the crown prince. And a policeman
who was present heard 1t, too, shrug-
Yed his shoulders and walked away
instead of making an arrest Tor iese
THESE people wanted bread. not prom
ises. and when three and more years
have passed and they begin to feel that
the promised victory Is further away
than ever when food is almost gones
when few men or women over ufty
wears Of age have still fought on star
walton. when skeleton children by the
tens of thousands have been laid In
their graves from lack OF food ana
when misery in its most horrid form
stalks the once fertile and happy land
IT is not humanity possible Tor these
people still to revere man who had
brought this misery to them under
many promises Of great victory and
Germanism. or still to place
great faith in his generals or his son.
when the result Of all their promfses
and boastings is more death. moro hun-
ger, more misery. \
A naturally God-fearing race. thsy
have been insidfously tutored In ag-
nosticism. IL not in atheism. BY the
eternal claim of their emperor that h9
Is Gods chosen ruler and that his arms
les are marching with God to certn1n
only to find that that victory 10 s
CONTINUED on Tenth Fagsl