Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-09-14

| avoided Dy lndI reSOIule leadership at
home for which general headquarters
often asked
AS first quartermaster- general it
was often my duty personally to lay
the demands of general headquarters
before the government.
Called "Reacti0naPy;" Denies 1t.
OF political personages and parties
took no account. Those parties
which were forever talking about
understanding" instead of fostering
the warlike spirit of the nation, did
not recognize the need for the de-
| mands put forward, The government
shared their views. And thus the
government and the majority parties
| found themselves in agreement and
adopted an antagonistic attitude to-
wards me and my military ideas and
wishes.
| 1t was obvious that I had more sup
| porters among those parties which,
| like myself. regarded an understand
| ing as impossible in view of the enc
my's determination to destroy us, and
therefore wished the war to be carried
on with the greatest energy. | never
asked for their support, but they
trusted me. These parties belonged
| to the right-the minority. And so,
although I thought only of the war,
the rest labelled me "reactionary."
Had l found my own ideas accepted.
by the democratic parties, l should
have found supporters among them
also; in which case the right would
perhaps have abused me as demo
crat," and, as a matter of fact. this
happened often enough.
I am neither 'reactionary'' nor a.
democrat" All I stand for is the.
prosperity, the cultural progress ana
national strength of the German peo-
Pile, authority and order. These are
the pillars on which the future Of our
country rests. During the war this
was our aim; to develop the greatest
energy in its prosecution, and so Sc
cure our military existence. and with
it our equally important economic ex-
istence, both during and after the war.
Was Made the Scapegoat.
The inertia of the imperial govern
ment in so many matters had unpleas-
ant consequences fop me, in that ILL
wishers, and sometimes even over
jealous friends, dragged me into the
strife of parties, although I was In no
way concerned and never put myself
forward in any way. What | did was
misrepresented and criticised without
lions and statements were misinter-
preted.
Vague and totally unfounded asser-
lions were spread broadcast At first
my frank and soldierly way of think
ing prompted me to dismiss all this
with a shrug of the shoulders; it was
not worth notice in view of the great
work on which / was engaged Later
on | regretted these occurrences. but
was unable to do anything to prevent
them.
repeatedly asked the press to leave
me alone. Beyond that, l was too
busy to take any action myself Be
sides, I had no platform from which
to speak, and, above all, ] gave the
German nation credit for more sense
of the stern reality. But it suited the
government to have discovered a
lightning conductor. Instead Of pro-
tecting me they gave free rein to the
agitators, represented me as dicta-
tor, put everything down to general
headquarters, and so embittered the
feeling against me, That was the po- |
sition, broadly speaking, The two
chancellors. DR.. Miehaelis and Count
Won Hertling, were far above any such
intrigues. but the irreparable mischief
and, in view of my military position
it was nothing short of q national dis
aster--was already done.
Denies He Rationed People.
1t became more and more the fash |
ion to hold general headquarters,
which in this case meant myself, re-
sponsible for our troubles and miser- |
les. For example, by name was asso-
ciated, not only with the unavoidable |
but even with some of the
of the home rationing |
system Indeed. / was represented as |
their author and blamed accordingly
Neither the quartermaster general nor |
the intendent general, nor had any |
thing to do with the food supply at !
home, which was entirely in the hands
of the war ministry and the food con-
trol office. |
After my resignation I heard from |
leaders of the social democratic party |
that l had been responsible for the |
manner in which the military govern
ors had administered the regulations
dealing with the right of public meet
ing. This was entirely outside my !
province.
The following case is typical In |
the winter of 1861 | was blamed |
for the shortage of transport and coal.
This was mainly due to insufficient
provision having been made before l |
was appointed to general headquar-
ters. In February. 1917, | urged the |
of coal controller Un- |
the right man was not dis |
covered at once, and another had to |
be selected later on. |
In the summer of 1917 $4,000 miners
were released by general headquar-
tiers from service at the front. In the |
winter of 191T-1S house fuel was more
plentiful than in the previous one; but
general headquarters, which had ta-
ken decisive easures and was GER
tainly more responsible for the. I'M
proved situation than for the, bad |
of 1916-17. got enither
thanks nor credit That did not fit
in with the ideas of those who were !
agitating against me. or of those 9TH
ers who, though better informed
themselves, allowed the agitation to
go on.
published by special arrangement
with the Mcclure Newspaper Syndi-
cate. Copyrighted. 1919. by Harper
and Brothers. AL rights reserved.
in Great Britain by |
Hutchinson and Company and the
Times. in Spain by Messrs.
SEEK and BARREL, in Italy by Fratelli /
Treves, in Canada and Australia. All /
rights reserved for France. Belgium,
Holland, Russia. and the Scandfna-
Wan countries.) L
In the next insta1ment Gen. Luden-
dorff reveals how he was upset by the
peace propaganda in Germany ana
!, ps+,;o Il, 1917 Ia admits the graV-