The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-02-08
WILL GERMANS
FIGHT AGAIN?
BY c. c.. LYON.

At least so times since L came back
from Berlin I have been asked this
question by Americans, Frencamen or
Britishers:
do the Germans realize hey are !
licked?"
And my reply has been: Yes ami |
no"
THE men who did the actual fight |
ing-officers and common soldiers, |
and their families, haven't tlc slight
est doubt that GerIns ny was at the
end of her string when the armistice
was signed and that her armies would
have been annihiIated if the war had
gone on long enough. They know they
are licked and accept the wars YER
dict in such a light.
| Pint I found while in Germany that
! the old junker class-the large land
owners and captains Of industry VINO
| had fattened and grown prosperous
/ through the maintenance Of the mill
tarism system, Won let themselves
admit that he allies licked Germany
/ Hope Republic Fails.
"These iunkers are the thick heads
land reactionaries who were the fl
,nancial power behind militar!sm WHO
for nearly fifty years, by controlling
business and public opinion, the latter
through a subservient press, were able
to press agent the masses OF the en-
tire nation into the belief that the
lonIy way the German people could
prosper and grow great was By mill
tary oppression over weaker peoples.
These tunkers still secretly hope that
the formation of German republic
viii fail and that tie day VIII come,
perhaps not soon but ultimately, when
Germany will go bac.l to the old sys-
tenn and they will again begin re-
building The military idea
After my interview with Marshal
Hindenburg and General Groener tbs
latter Ludendorf's successor, at Cas-
SCI. l had no misgivlng whatever as i
: : how they felt about The outcome OF
the war.
Hindenburg himself didn't appear.to
have an ounce of fight left IN him.
and, do his best, he could not hide tha
telltale evidences in his face that he
was a broken hearted man.
Hindenburg Is Done.
! Hindenburg. / am sure, viii never
? iagain advise the German people to try
4 To CONQUER the world. What he sale
{ to me at Cassel convinces me he know;
it can't ne done. And as long as Hin
deoburg and his chief generals arr
5 alive | don't believe the world vii
IL have much to fear from Germany in
: military way.
e Groener was equally frank in admit
ting defeat.
You had us completely exhausted.
he said. You cut out lines of com
IS nunication and squeezed US into sue
II a narrow bottle that we couldn't sc
= ire Ifgr
they."ever had has been taken out O
them came from the common. soldier
: themselves.
Within a week after the armistic
was signed more than six hundrc
> thousand of them, I was told in Rer
: lin. had deserted the army and ha,
4 gone to their families
: Why didn't the officers arrest then
! and bring them back!
e Because the officers were afraid q
Is the men who had done tie. actua
! fighting.
r Urged Men to Desert.
I. The great internal bust-up in Ge-
many came largely through the fac
Z, that the millions Of soldiers. wher
: they went home on leave found thei
wives and children Starving ana the,
went back to the trenches thinkinp
What am l fighting for and what vii
{. | get out of it if Germany wins? Moth.
q ing. The kaiser and the junkers viii
n set everything"
8 That is one reason why. in the Ia s.
days OF the war. hundreds of Thousands
OF Germans quit cold and surrendered
At the first opportunity, refusing tx
fight.
And ! had wives tell me they had
advised their husbands to surrender.
What the world has to fear is the
1unker class-the Krurps anG landed
and business aristocracy who made
millions out of the war They want the
good old days-for them-to come
back They've been kicked out of power
for the present but they're f1mentine
trouble. They don't want a renub-
lie.
!, The folks who have ,grabbed the
reins are anything bat ri,:tarist,.
| They'll likely keep on fighting among
| themselves for some time hut they
1 don't want any more world fights be-
l cause they know Germany's onlZ.
chance for the future lies in behaving
l herself