The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1919-07-31

allies will feel what the power of Ger
many Is long before English conscrip-
tion can avail them anythine"
"And while England is slowly build
ing up her Insignificant army" the
kaiser went on, "she will see Americas
navy and merchant marine constantly
growing and the dollar replacing the
pound as the unit Of the worlds
finance. No. Davis, England will soon
be sick OF the war and will look with
fear upon Americas growing power I"
The French army. too, was generally
bellttled. and the Russians were be-
lieved to be absolutely negligible. The
| French army was SO poorly equipped,
1t was pointed out. that the officers
had to 60 to the field In patent-leather
| boots, and on the Russian front only
the first-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 before
Paris. Soldiers who participated In
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 but
raw potatoes and turnlps which they
picked from the fields.
When these reports finally spread
through Germany the people began to
realize that their generals In the west
were not meeting with the same success
that Won Hindenburg had had in the
east and Won Hlndenburg became the
idol Of the people immediately. a fact
that was very distasteful to the high
command.
The kaiser's dislike of Won Hlnden-
burg was of long standing. He had
never forgiven that general for the mis-
take he made during military maneuv-
ers In peace tir1e when by a brilliant
stroke of strategy he had succeeded In
capturing the ka;ser's forces. including
the kaiser and his whole staffl
Ihave referred in previous chapter
to the kaiser's unbUlnded confidence
after the Italian collapse In 1917
"Now, we've got the allies!" he ex
claimed. with an air Of conclusiveness
which emphasized the optimism hi
displayed.
After the capture Of Roumania, HI
exhibited q similar degree Of exulta
tion. He believed that In that achieve
ment he had successfully solved th'
| hn
constantly darkened the kaiser's hOri
zon.
"Now the allies will never succeed II
. starving u.s." he said to me in my of
flee shortly after the Roumanian drive
with Roumania In our pockets ant
Servia already ours, their wonderful
agricultural possibilities will suppl.
our food needs and foil our enemies
efforts to starve US. Indeed, they ha,
|, better look out for themselves. Don
forget we have monopoly on tn
potash mines of the world. Withou
proper fertilization, American crop
: will 30 on decreasing and decreasin
and they won't get any potash until W
get ready to let them have 1t"
The failure of the Zeppelins from
! military standpoint was undoubtedly
great disappointment to the Germa
people at large, who had counted S
!. much upon them to bring disaster I
. England, but 1t cannot be said that tn
kaiser shared their chagrin. On tn
> contrary, have reason to believe tina
he never expected very much from tina
arm Of his military force except as
might be useful TO terrorize the civ
!, population.
nj A day or two after Zeppelin's dealt
= In 1917. a patient of mine. a lady, hal
pened to remark that 1t was too ba
!, that the count had not lived to see III
!, triumph of his invention. and when
:. saw the kaiser shortly afterwards
. repeated her remark to see what |
II would say.
" II am convinced that the count live
r long enough to see all that the Ze
n pelins were capable Of accomplishing
r. was his only comment. 1t recalled Il
il answer he had given me some yea
before when both Zeppelins and al
IN planes were In their infancy and hi
!. asked him which held the great
n promise. 1--WE do not know. Tin
"A alone will tell" was his reply.
,e The last time I conversed with u
d kaiser was on November 20. 1917.
to that time we had sent over 1890
ir troops. according to the figures Will
e have since been revealed by Secreta
r. Baker. According to the kaiser's
q. formation. however, we had only 3
70 600 men In France at that time al
rs he was of the opinion that we wou
,e never have many more.
It. america Is having fine time II
ing to raise an army" he declar
rt satirically. II hear that 1900 mutini
he the other day In New York and
w fused to get on a transport, and
a town In the Northwest composed prl
nd cIpally of citizens Of Swedish bio