Evening star., 1919-01-24

weeks tour through Germany,
during which Mr.. Corey travel
ed twelve hundred miles. saw
MANY cities and interviewed {
leaders from Hindenburg to 5
$ Haase.)
We had two weeks in Germany. We
passed through the midst of the Ger
man armies, we saw everything, talk
ed to every one we wanted to talk
Withdrawing Ebert and Liebknecht
and were treated as American re-
porters usually are treated. Yet the
ermistice had Just been signed The
war was technically not at an end.
How did we do it?
That question has been asked so Of
ten since our return-once or twice
officially-that it had best be an
swered here. We had the courage of
ignorance-or of comprehension. We
had the mandate that every American
reporter has to get the news. We
believed we could get it. Events
proved that we were right Since We
got back we have been assured that
we had the nerve of the College of
Burglars:
The Germans might have shot you.
You broke the military law in en-
tering an enemy country"
Knew the Conditions
Both of these things are unques-
fionably true, but it is likewise true
that we gave neither of them a
thought before taking the plunge.
We had read the terms of the armis-
tice when it was signed and we saw
what all the rest of the world saw.
That was not an armistice at all.
That was unconditional surrender.
. The German armies would not be nit
to fight a cat if the conditions of that
armistice were obeyed. and the infor-
nation We began to get at army
headquarters was that the conditions
were being obeyed. We wanted to
! know what was going on inside Ger
many, as did all the rest of the world.
Guesses and fakes came out from
Switzerland and Holland and the rest
of the Port Arthurs of this war. But
no one knew what had happened.
Let us go to Germany" said Lin
coin Eyre of the New York World one
day.
So that he and Frederick A. Smith
of the Chicago Tribune and myself
decided to go. No one could give us
permission it appeared No allied
government could wise our passports
to enter country with which we
were still nominally at war. Nor
would they. The wandering habit of
the American reporter has never been
kindly looked upon by the European
diplomatist. He prefers that journal
lists should wait until the facts have
been well rehearsed in their role.
Getting Into Germany.
An American Army authority said
that Gen. Foch might arrange for us
, to enter Germany. but he held out no
hope that Gen. Foch would. On the
morning of November 81 we left Metz,
; where he had been for a day or two
! previous to the arrival of the French
| troops. We started for Luxembourg.
which city that day became the press
. Headquarters of the American Army.
4. We were accompanied by c. c. Lyon
I, of the N. E. A. who had the night be-
/ lore been taken into our confidence,
and George H. Seldes of the Marshall
. Syndicate, who had not.
On the way to Luxembourg we ran
into the rear of the 5th German army,
commanded by Won der Marwitz. Just
as we had planned. At first these
were Just stragglers, 1imping along
the road under their packs. Some
had thrown their guns away. BY and
by we came to the rear guard. These
clothed, well shod. Their horses were
notably good. Some led stolen cattle
They looked sullenly at our army car,
but said nothing. Perhaps at that
tlme, II some one had put the mat
ter to vote. we might have turned
back. 1t was only ten days since
these men had been shooting at us
with anfmosity and accuracy. The
only live Germans in uniform any of
us had seen in four years were either
wounded or in the prison pens.
But we could not turn back. We
were on one-way road, and to get
along at all we had been forced to
crowd the retreating soldiers into the
ditch at the cost of much blusterous
horn-blowing. We realized that as
I long as we kept on going the Ger
mans would think we had business
there, but IL we turned around and
'staNed blackwell. anything might
happen We kept on. Now and then
we got into a traffic jam in the mar
row road. In one of these a German
under officer spoke to me:
Lost Hatred for Americans.
~English?" he asked.
American" I said.
There was a perceptible increase in
cordiality. Evidently the English are
very bitterly hated, while for one
and another reason-mostly founded
in hope-the Americans were not
We rode under triumphal arches
erected across the narrow streets of
tiny villages. "Welcome Home.
Heroes" was the inscription Each
inscription was like every other one
Evidently each had been dictated
from the central authority. Women
and children lined the road and
waved their hands with futtering
fingers at the marching ranks. They
may not have known that Germany
was beaten. but doubt if they cared
They welcomed the peace
The soldiers knew the truth Some
times a company sang deep
1hroated marching song and most of
them had thrust flowers in the muZ-
Zle of their rifles, just as I had seen
fhem when they marched out of Ber-
jim to go to war four years ago. They
were happy that the war was over
and they did not disguise the fact.
I'hey wreathed the great cannon and