Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-30
HOW DOES 1T
STRIKE YOU?

~ dorff who piloted the Kapp revolu-
tion which opened the way to the
workmen's revolution in Germany.
In military strategy Ludendorff may
be wonderful, but politically he is
stupid
In the last years of the war it was
the general staff which controlled Ger
many's political policy, foreign as well
as domestic.
This is inevitably the case.
Everything else is subordinated to
winning the war. :, q,
And Ii was Ludendorf who controlled
the general staff.
Thus it was Ludendorff who made
Germany's politics:
And it was stupid politics.
1t protracted the war.
1t cost Germany many lives ana
much treasure and resulted hnaliy IN
Germany being compelled to accept
much harsher terms than she might
easily have got any time before the
Allies had, as they in the end did, mill
tary victory in their grasp:
And he has Just played all over again
politics Just as stupid in fomenting the
Kapp revolution.
4 Socialist newspaper says Luden :
dorff has lost his second war.
q q q
COLDIERS make the worst politicians,
Il - unless they be geniuses of the first
rank, like Napoleon.
Yet politics always intrigues generals,
especially general staff generals.
Perhaps they have notion that
politics is like war because 1t involves
strategy.
of move and counter move. =.
But the soldier is spoiled for poll
ties by his habit of exercising authority.
He cant get over the idea that things
move the way he tells them to move.
He cant get over issuing orders.
He cant adapt himself TO a world
IN which there is no discipline.
Either he sees this quickly. being
simple and unegoistic, like General
Grant. and resigns himself into the
hands of others and thus makes fail =
ure as General Grant did when Presl-
dent. ,:....,,-
Or he bulles. assuming discipline and
ohedience where there is none, and
comes to grief that way.
There are two kinds of generals whom
| sell SONtl hlhS PSoP'N
again to lead it. =.
One is the loved soldier, whom il
knows TO be a chucklehead in civilian
affairs. bur whom it delights to honor
none the less; the Hindenburg sort of
general, who may yet be president OF
| Germany.
And the other is the restless, am
bitious general, grasping for power,
whom a peOplc chooses because term
of him will "do the body polite good
| lust as a stay at Muldoon 5 training
! farm does man good.
But the public soon gets tired of both
equally.
Judges say that General Wood has al
ways been politician whom accident
placed in the army.
THERE is always q book that in
i spires every revolution. 1t was
Rousseau's books that voiced tie ideals
of the French Revolution and it is a book
that borrows its title from Rousseau
which has been read by all revolutionary
Germany.
Rousseau had said, "L'hommc bon, les
hommes mechants"-"Man is good. men
bad"-and it is by Leonhard Frank.
1t is a collection of short stories at
| lacking war, and it has been read in
Germany as Barbusse's "Ie Feu,"
| translated with the title "Undcr Fire"
was read in France, which was not ripe
! for revolution or it might have been
overturned by Barbusse's fiction.
q q q
TIIE first story in "Man Is Good
/ is called "The Father"
1t is a simple little story Of waiter
who has skimpcd and shaved and cringed
| before the patrons Of his restaurant
/ scraping up tips to bring up his son.
The war comes.
The boy is killed ION the field OF
honor"
All that was worth while in life has
been taken away from the waiter.
Will he go on shaving and crinRinp
before the patrons of his restaurant?
He goes out into the street and To q
hall where the working people are gath
cred.
He mounts the tribune aud tells hi,
simple story of what war has cost him
His story is the story of all his lis
teners.
lie leads them into the street, an,
the whole town gathers behind him 4,
make am end Of the thing which rob,
lXQu Qf that for which you have skimpel