Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1915 — AMERICAN IDEAS HELP HINDENBURG [ARTICLE]

AMERICAN IDEAS HELP HINDENBURG

Germany’s Great Field Marshal Talks About His Part in War. y SUCCESS DUE TO RAILROADS “Railroad Napoleon” Enthusiastic Over American Methods of Trans-portation-la a Warm Admirer of Colonel Goethals. German Great Headquarters, East. — But for the “field gray” coat and the militant mustache, 1 should have taken him for a self-made American, a big business man or captain of industry, as he sat at his work desk, the telephone at his elbow, the electric pushbuttons and reams of neat reports adding to the illusion. Quiet, unassuming and democratic, he yet makes the same Impression of virility and colossal energy as Colonel Roosevelt does, but with an iron restraint of discipline which the American never possessed, and an earnestness of face and eye that I had only seen matched In his commander in chief, the kaiser. Here was a man whom the most neutral American could instantly admire and honor, regardless of the merits of the controversy. It was Hindenburg, the well beloved, the hope of Germany. He has already been “done” by journalists, but 70,000,000 are pinning their faith to him, which makes him worth “doing” again—and again. For a moment I nearly forgot that I was an American with “nerve,” bent on making him say something, preferably indiscreet; It seemed almost a shame to bother this man whose brain was big with the fate of empire. But, although I hadn’t been specially invited, but had just “dropped in” in informal American fashion, the commander in chief of all his kaiser’s forces in the East stopped making history long enough to favor me with a short but thought-provoking interview. As to his past performances, the field marshal genially referred to the* detailed official summary; as to the future, he protested: Expects Final Victory. “I am not a prophet. But this I can

say: Tell our friends in America —and also those who do not love us—that 1 am looking forward with unshakable confidence to the final victory—and a well-earned vacation,” he added whimsically. "I should like nothing better than to visit your Panama exposition and meet your wonderful General Goethals, the master builder, for I imagine our jobs are spiritually much akin; that his slogan, too, has been ‘durchhalten’ (hold out) until endurance and organization win out against heavy odds.” Then with sudden, paradoxical, terrific, quiet earnest: "Great is the task that still confronts us, but greater my faith in my brave troops." One got indelibly the impression that he loved them all, suffered under their hardships and sorrowed for their losses. “For you, this war is only a titanic drama; we Germans feel it with our hearts,” he said thoughtfully. The field marshal spoke warmly of the Austro-Hungarian troops, and cited the results of the close co-operation between his forces and the Austrian armies as striking proof of the proverb, “In union there is strength.” Like all other German generals whom I had “done," he, too, had words of unqualified praise for the bravery of his enemies. “The Russians fight well; but neither mere physical bravery nor numbers, nor both together, win battles nowadays.” “How about the steam roller?” “It hasn’t improved the roads a bit, either going forward or backward,” he said with a grim smile. “Are you worrying over Grand Duke Nicholas’ open secret?” I asked, citing the report via Petrograa and London of a new projected Russian offensive that was to take the form, not of a steam roller, but of a “tidal wave of cavalry.” “It will dash against a wall of loyal flesh and blood, barbed with steel —if it comes,” he said simply. Lauds American Genius. My impression, growing increasingly stronger the more I have seen, that German military success had been to no small extent made possible by American inventive genius and highspeed American methods, received interesting partial confirmation from the field marshal, whose keen, restless mind.'workiug over quite ordinary material, produced the pew suggestive combination of ideas that, while "America might possibly be materially assisting Germany’s enemies with arms, ammunition and other war material, certain it was that America, in the last analysis, had helped Germany far more.” “But for America my armies would possibly pot be standing in Russia today—without the American railroading genius that developed and made possible for me this wonderful weapon, thanks largely to which we have bqen able with comparatively small numbers to stop and beat back the Russian millions again and again—steam engine versus steam roller. Were it for nothing else, America has proved one of our best friends, if not an ally. “We are also awaiting with genuine Interest the receipt of our first American guns,” the field marshal added. How was Germany expecting to get guns from America? He was asked to explain the mystery.

"I read somewhere in the papers that a large shipment of heavy cannon had left America for Russia,” he said with dry humor, “in transit for us—for if they’re consigned to the Russians, we’ll have them sooner or later, I hope;" adding, with his habitual earnestness; “The Americans are something more than shrewd, hard-headed business men. Have they ever vividly pictured to themselves a German soldier smashed by an American shell, or bored through the heart by an American bullet? The grim realism of the battlefield —that slfbuld make also the, business man thoughtful.” “Shall you go wsst when you have cleaned up here in the east?” I suggested. . “I can't betray military secrets which 1 don’t know myself, even to interest the newspaper readers,” he said. He gave me the impression, however, that east or west, he would be found fighting for the fatherland so long as the fatherland needed him. Is a Hard Worker. “Now it j means work again. 'You must excuse me,” he concluded, courteously. “Yon want to go to the front Where should you like to go?" “To Warsaw,” I suggested modestly. “I, too,” he laughed, “but today—sasgeschlossen (“nothing doing,” in

Americanese). Still —that may be yet.” “May I come along, your excellency?” “Certainly, then you can see for yourself what kind of ‘barbarians’ we Germans are.” “Dropping in on Hindenburg" yields some unimportant but interesting byproducts. The railroad Napoleon, as all the world knows, lives and works in a palace, but this palace doesn’t overawe one who has beaten professionally at the closed portals of Fifth avenue. It would be considered a modest country residence in Westchester county or on Long Island. Light in color and four stories high, Including garret, it looks very much like those memorials which soap kings and sundry millionaires put up to themselves in their lifetime —the American college dormitory, the modern kind that is built around three sides of a small court. The palace is as simple as the man. The main entrance, a big iron gateway, is flanked by two guardhouses painted with white and black stripes, the Prussian “colors,” and two unbluffable landsturm men- mount guard, who will tell you to go around to the back door. The orderly who opens the front door is a sergeant in field gray uniform. You mount a flight of marble steps and saunter down a marble hall, half a block long. It is the reception hall. It is furnished with magnificent hand-carved high-backed chairs without upholstery, lounging being apparently encouraged here. They are Gothic structures, backed np against the walls. There is no brussels or Axminster carpet on the cold marble floor —not even Turkish rugs. Through this palace hall, up by the ceiling, runs a thick cable containing the all-important telephone wires. The offices open off the hall, the doors labeled with neatly printed signs telling who and what is within. If you should come walking down the street outside at 3 a. m. you would probably see the lights in Hindenburg’s office still burning, as I did. At 3:30 they went out, indicating that a field marshal’s job is not *a sinecure.—New York Times Correspondence.