The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1919-10-10
prussianism,s Fall.

Prussianism's Fall.
1--WE stood alone in the world"
So writes Ludendorff of the beaten
Germans in November, 1918, a lit
tie more than four years after they
had set forth to subjugate the world.
No more striking picture of Ger
many's collapse has been made than
that by Ludendorff in yesterdays
Courier-Journal.
The empire disintegrated, the in
vincible armies capitulated, the
Kaiser and War Lord deposed fug-
tive, the Princes of the States abdi-
Gated, the mighty military machine
smashed and its head, Ludendorff,
himself, kicked out, what was left
of Germany, deserted by her allies,
friendless, despised throughout the
earth she had meant to conquer, in
deed "stood alone"
"The troops" so their former
chief says, ''lost all discipline and or
der. and streamed home in wild con-
fusion, plundering as they went"
1.-THE bulk of the troops in depots
went over to the side of the revolu-
tionaries." "Men who had fought
magnificently against the enemy lost
their nerve and abandoned the army
and the country, thinking of nothing
but themselves. officers even were
among them, forgetting the duties of
their class
Out of this world struggle she
comes weakened and diminished in
every respect, and robbed of districts
and peoples which have been hers
for generations.
She loses her colonies.
Her right to defend herself is
taken away. The German has lost
the right to serve his country in the
army.
/ Germanys merchant feet disap-
pears from the high seas. Her in
dustrial strength is broken, and the
fragments that remain are placed un-
der enemy supervision.
| The indemnities we have to pay
are beyond our power.
The debt which the revolution has
laid on itself does not end merely
with this terrible peace. 1t makes the
heavy yoke, under which 1t has sent
the German people into bondage, into
an absolutely crushing one.
In Germany there is civil war.
German property is being destroyed.
The public moneys are wasted and
put to selfish uses; the finances OF
the empire, the States and the towns
become rottener day by day. The
fallen morale of the population rush
es unrestrained into the freedom" of
4 the revolution; the lowest instincts
of mankind develop unrestrained and
regardless of consequences.
| Everywhere are disorders, strik-
ings, deceit and over-reaching, ac-
companied often by the most disgust
ing frenzies of luxury, and this at
the graveside of the millions who
have died for the country, and in
the sight of the many cripples on
whom our eyes rest.
Germany offers hideous and con-
temptible spectacle, filling every true
! German heart with Understandable
grief, but awakening among our
enemies and neutrals nothing but
contempt.
BY the revolution the Germans
i have made themselves outcasts among
the peoples, incapable of making al
lies, helots in the service of foreign
ers and foreign capital, and deprived
Of all self-respect.
So moaned this Imperialist of I'M
perialists, this first of militarists and
typical Junker. That HE is typically
German is attested by the fact that
the only consolation which he could
find in the situation was in the dis
honor of his countrymen who sank
the German warships. "The future
is dark before u.s." he wrote, "the
only bright spot being the acts of the
men at Scapa Flow"
Ludendorff throughout his book
has revealed himself as the most
fatuous exponent of Prussianism.
His contempt for the civil Govern
ment of his country was unconcealed,
becoming bitterest when the Govern
ment decided to accept the terms of
the armistice rather than allow him
to continue the war, though he adj
mits it was lost, to the complete an
Inhalation of the German people
Louisville Courier-Journal.