Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-22
LIEUTENANT COMM Shy
1 DAWSON, whose graphic word

pictures of the war, have had
wide appreciation, writes of his visit
TO Germany since the fighting end
ed for the New York Times and
among other things, says:
4 was anxious to renew my ac-
quaintance with the Hun. The last
time / had any dealings with him
he had sent me back to Blighty with
| a hole in my head. During the
past few years all my dealings with
him had been of this violent order,
/ SO that I had come to regard him
| not so much as an individual as an
impersonal. devastating force. That
was how he had appeared when we
had spied on him from our OBJ
servation posts across No Mans
Land.
"One resents the SNUG, smiling
face of Germany. Its plumpness is
an insult. One knows how it has
been achieved-by worldwide can
nibalism. She sucked the blood of
the peoples against whom she was
the aggressor. She transfused their
health as we'll as their possessions.
| While she has SCARED and famish-
/ ed beyond recognition the bodies o.
the nations whom she wilfully at
! tackled, her own body is vigorous
This assertion will be and has
been disputed. That she may evade
the payment of the Allies bill for
damages, her government propa-
gandists have represented her as
shell-shocked and bankrupt. Their
eloquence has come near to con-
! vincing the. per-humanitarian
among. her adversaries. But men
who have visited her during the
sitting of the Peace Conference
know for a fact that her vitality has
suffered less proportionately than
that of any of her major enemies.
with the exception of America. All
her cities, railroads, rolling stock,
| mines, machinery, industrial insti-
tutions are intact. They are not
only intact, but they have been add
! ed to by. pillage and their efficiency
! has been increased by trade secrets
wrung from the captured cities or
the occupied territories. Moreover,
competition has been to a large eX-
tent wiped out, for it was the min
ing districts and great industrial
| centers of her Belgian and French
| trade rivals that she struck at and
destroyed SO completely. Even be-
| fore peace was signed, she had or
ganized her factories to make the
most of this advantage, that she
might set out on an uncontested
pirate expedition around the world.
She is sailing, and will sail while
| the prejudice lasts against her, un-
der neutral flags.
$50, while France and Belgium
are deploring their stolen tools ana
awaiting the first payments of the
indemnity to rebuild their plants.
Germany. camoufaged as a neutral,
is racing full steam ahead to fore
stall them in the markets which
were theirs. Germany launched the
war that she might expand her
| commerce.; she has lost the war,
but she plans to make reparation to
the Allies out of their own pockets
by creating a handicap in her own
| favor out of their crippled state.
How far they will allow her to sue
! ceed remains to be seen now that
peace has become a fact.
'The Huns psychology is readily
| explained when one recalls his eX-
periences with German walters. The
! German waiter of pre-war days,
whom wn encountered in the best
| hotels wherever we travelled. was
usually a spy and an undeclared
enemy. Sometimes he overwhelm-
ed us with solicitous attentions: at
others he treated us with super
lative haughtiness. His change of
demeanor depended entirely on his
estimate of the state of our pocket
book. If he scented a handsome tip
in the offing he was the most con-
siderate and kind of mortals. If
our appearance did not assure him
of a large reward, he pulled us
with thinly veiled insolence. There
you have the true German as he
was, is and will be. Defeat has not
! refined his harshness; 1t has only
made him friendly while friendship
seems the shortcut 10 personal gain.
| There is no friendship in his heart,
| only a desire for profit and domin-
| ance. AS it was with my head port
er with the limping leg and the
Iron Cross, it pays to smile at pres
ent; but he would far more willingly
! stab you. ...-
"One cannot help but believe that
| these reports of Germany's econom-
ic collapse were first of all mere
| optimisms of the Allies, fostered by
them to bolster up their own
morale, and, that afterward they
were. accredited by Hun statesmen
in ordertto reduce the amount of the
| indemnity. When the substantial