The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-09-06
aPAGE THREE

The failure of the .Zeppelins from a
military standpoint was undoubtedly .
great disappointment to the German
people ut large, who had counted So
much upon them to bring disaster t0
England but 1t cannot be said that the
kaiser shared their chagrin. On the
contrary, l have reason to believe that
he never expected very much from that
arm OF his military force except as IL
might be useful to terrorize the civil
population.
A day or two after Zeppelin's death.
in 1917, patient of mine. a lady, hap
pened to remark that : was too bad
that the count had not IL ed to see the
triumph OF his invention, and when Z
saw the kaiser shortly afterwards i
repeated her remark to see what ha
would say.
II am convinced that tho 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 Zeppelins and air
planes were in their infancy and had
asked him which held the greater
promise. "We do not know. Time
alone will tell" was his reply.
The last time / conversed with the
kaiser was on November 20, 1917. Up
to that time we hai sent over 10000
troops, according to the figures which
have since been revealed by Secretary
Baker. According to the kaiser's in
formation. however, we had only 3d.
600 men in France at that time ans
ne was of the opinion that we woulS
never have many more.
America is having fine time try
ing to raise an army" he declared
satiriCally. 81 hear that 900 mutinied
the other day In New York and re-
fused to get on q transport, and 10
town in the Northwest composed prin-
cipally of citizens OF Swedish bloOCs
refused to register ut all We are get
ting excellent information about all
conditions in America"
Shortly before this had come the rev.
elatiOns from Washington of the in
trigue of Count Won Luxburg, the Ger
man minister to Argentina, and knew
where the kaiser was getting the in
formation he referred to. In nearly
every case, ii appeared, the kaiser's in
formanS were misleading him.
Both before and after we entere0
the war the kaiser was thoroughly con-
vinced that we could play only nom
inal part in 1t 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 1t re-
suited in bringing us into the war.
"Do you realize how many tons OF
shipping it takes to ship a single SOL
dicr?' ne asked me on one OCCASION
l confessed iy ignorance on that
point
'Well, 1t takes six tons to the A.
To send over an army of 500.eO0 Gngu,.
therefore. your country wouL, require.
100000 tons Of shipping in addition
to the tonnage required for regular
traffic. Where is it coming from, with,
my submarines sinking the allied ves-
""!s faster than they can ever he re-
placed? My U-boats are doing won
dcrful work and we are prepared to
'akr care of all the troops America
nay tr~ o land in France"
How foolish for America to have
.orac into the war" he went ON. III
she could succeed in landing reai
army in France, what good would it
40! America can see how easy II was
tor me To break through and to cap
ture 100000 of the Italians, and they
must realize that | can break through
on the western front and do the Samesj
thing there. II America had kept out
of the war she would have gone ON
making untold profits and when peace
was finally declared she would have
been In most enviable position
among the nations of the world AS IL
is, Wilson will never have seat at
the peace table If | can help it, and
now America shall have to pay all thee
costs of the war;" Evidently he imag-
ined that his triumph would be SO,
table, but that the warning nations
would be compelled to accent the
terms he offered them. in which event.
knowing the magnanimity of the Ger
man makeup, / should say the world
at large would have to be content with
very little.
How the kaiser feels now that the
failure OF the U-boats to intercept
American troop ships must be pain
fully apparent to him, and America
has so overwhelmingly overcome the
shortage CT shipping, l don't know, but
1t Is more than probable that for some
time to come the real situation will, at
any rate. be successfully concealed
from the German people. know that
NHn Cot,