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Show !m WHAT AILS THE GERMANS? I jj Nothing is worrying the Germans II j so much as the American army in j France. This is made evident by the I ; comments in the press. The Cologne ; Zeitung on Tuesday printed an article I j to prove that the Americans cannot jjj send 300,000 men to France in a R j month, and then recognizing that this 1 i mere denial might not impress its jfj readers, the Cologne paper proceeds 5 to prove that the very best fighting 1 ' elements of the United States have I ; been sent over, made up of the regular I army and about 40,000 of the most I sturdy and most adventurous men, ag- I; gregating about 250,000 picked fight- I ers. Once these soldiers are eliminat- B ed, the Americans will be worthless I as a war force. . As a concession, the Cologne Zei- I tung admits contingents may be re- jl crultcd from the New England states H ' who arc the best educated and keenest? fighters, tt To the Germans at home this may 1 be comforting, but the extreme ef- 1 fort at explaining away a serious 1 menace confronting the Teutons I makes amusing reading for the peo- 1 pie 'of the United States, ffl 'f his 'Cologne article clearly proves tho Germans aro dreading the American Ameri-can invasion. Their troops have met the Americans at Chateau Thierry, at Vaux, at Cantigny, at Fcre-en-Tartlc-nois, at Fismes; on the Toul sector; and with the British in Fhiuders. They have discovered, to their great surprise, sur-prise, that the Yankees are an unconquerable uncon-querable force. So the Gorman papers pa-pers aro trying to persuade their soldiers sol-diers that they have met the flower of tho American army; that when the 250,000 soldiers now in France are disposed dis-posed of, they will be freed from tho . ji This deception will have its bad effect ef-fect next spring when the full weight of the power of the United States will bo felt on the German lines. Tho disillusionment dis-illusionment will be more depressing than if the papers of Germany had not attempted to restore confidence by resorting to lies. Our own opinion is that much of the best fighting eloment of America is yet to be heard from. Our volunteer and draft forces will 'develop wonderful wonder-ful fighting material. |