Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1918 — Von Tirpitz Sees Gloomy Future. [ARTICLE]

Von Tirpitz Sees Gloomy Future.

Admiral VonTirpitz made a mistake when he figured that the ruthless submarine warfare could force Great Britain to her knees, but he has no illusions as to the future of a vanquished Germany. He realizes that his country is unmercifully defeated at present and that nothing but a victorious outcome of the war can save the German people from the burden of bankruptcy. It is his theory that something must be done to force the allies io pay the war bill, if Germany is ever to be able to stagger along under the load of debt and odium it has heaped upon itself. “Imagine the position if we simultaneously have to bear the burden of taxation which must fall on every German,” he said in a recent speech in Essen, “and despite the fallen value of Germany money we still have to buy the most necessary food and raw materials from abroad. Can any one really believe in these circumstances, without an increase of power, without indemnity and without security we could avoid Germany’s ruin?” He explained further that Germany’s prestige abroad is gone. “On the whoje transatlantic world we are eonsfdered as conquered and done for.”* > The truths he sets forth must have greater weight with Teutonic statosnen than many are disposed to realize. It is a fact that the German debt has mounted to a point where there is grave doubt if the country can pay the interest. Germany has no credit. Its money is depreciated and its resources dissipated. It is. ih fact, bankrupt. It can continue to make war, spending its own cheap >aper money among its own people, >ut the moment it undertakes to deal with outsiders its troubles will begin, and it must have food and material, as Admiral VonTirpitz explained. Economically Germany is defeated now. Its only hope is in a victory that would make possible 7 heavy indemnities. That dream must have been dissipated long ago in the minds of the nation’s real thinkers. The people, apparently, are being )uoyed up by the hope of a military success. But every day of fighting only adds to the seriousness of Germany’s position when the war has >een > ended y With a back-breaking debt, without money and without credit, and, worst of all, without respect anywhere in the civilized world, the Teuton does not seem likely to be a serious menace to any one for a long time after we get through with him.