OCR Text |
Show "ALIBI IKE" LUDENDORFF. In recent years there has come into the language Americans employ for every day a new significance to the word "alibi." In athletics especially the term is much favored when an excuse ex-cuse is offered for the failure to perform per-form a feat or when it is performed indifferently. in-differently. From athletics the expression expres-sion has spread until now it is quite common. com-mon. One who is given to excessive use of tho. "alibi" is dubbed an "Alibi Ike." A few weeks ago the press dispatches carried briefly an interview which the Stockholm Social Demokrat had with General Ludendorff, formerly quartermaster quarter-master general of the German'army, on the causes of Germany's defeat. The interview, more or less complete, has n'ow reached this country and forms interesting in-teresting reading of a sort. General Ludendorff, in effect, blames everybody for the disaster to the imperial im-perial arms except himself and his good friend, Von Hindenburg. Among his own countrymen he casts odium most strongly upon General von Moltke and General von Falkenhayn, . the former for deficient direction and the latter for deficient strategy. The German intelligence intelli-gence service is generously toasted. The article in the Stockholm journal contains the following pertinent paragraphs: para-graphs: ' Ludendorff stated that if Austria had been able to release eVen a small number cf her divisions to' help Germany on the western front, the war wou'd have been won by the central empires before America Amer-ica could have had time to send reinforcements rein-forcements to the allies. Ludendorff stated further that the position posi-tion of. .the central empires became precarious pre-carious when Italy abandoned her neutrality neu-trality to join the allies, but it became altogether disastrous in June, lytS, when General Diaz foiled the Austrian offensive on the Piave, in which the Austrjans bad employed their best troops and ail their resources. After such a failure, Ludendorff declared, de-clared, he was of the same opinion as' Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary, and favored the making of immediate peace proposals, but Emperor William telegraphed his objection to such a step. Emperor William wanted the Austrian army placed under German command, but Emperor Charles refused to sign such a decree. No doubt it is easy' for General Ludendorff Lu-dendorff to find excuses. Everyone who fails has some sort of" an "alibb"' and it is a curious circumstance that, almost' without exception, the- "alibis"' are wide, of the true causes of failure. It would be just as near the mark for Ludendorff to say that the reason for Germany's defeat was the superiority of its adversaries' armies, guns, munitions, transport, as to clatter along in the vein he does. The real reason for Germany's defeat was the unrighteousness of its cause, the shocking cruelty of its army officers, offi-cers, the unspeakable brutalities of its soldiers. Germany so conducted the war from the very beginning as to bring upon it the bitterest condemnation condemna-tion of practically every nation in the world, save itself and three others. It is not reasonable to think that any country coun-try can succeed in any enterprise whatsoever, what-soever, be it in pursuit of war or of peace, which invites the enmity of every other country, excepting only its own clique. Ludendorff may seek "alibis" until he is weary of the quest, yet will he never hit upon the true one unless he admits that Germany started the war in arrogance and greed and prosecuted it.npon lines which appalled the world. |