Whether such a panegyric from such an auspicious quarter is praise
indeed or the equivalent of complete condemnation, history alone
will be able to judge, but when one reflects, at this moment, upon
the achievements of this aircraft during the present conflagration,
the unprejudiced will be rather inclined to hazard the opinion
that Imperial Teuton praise is a synonym for damnation.
Although the Zeppelin was accepted as a perfect machine it has
never been possible to disperse the atmosphere of disaster with
which it has been enveloped from the first. Vessel after vessel
has gone up in smoke and flame: few craft of this type have
enjoyed more than an evanescent existence; and each successive
catastrophe has proved more terrible than its predecessor. But
the Teutonic nation has been induced to pin its whole faith on
this airship, notwithstanding that the more levelheaded engineers
of other countries have always maintained the craft to be a
"mechanical monstrosity" condemned from its design and principles
of construction to disaster. Unshaken by this adverse criticism,
Germany rests assured that by means of its Zeppelins it will
achieve that universal supremacy which it is convinced is its
Destiny.
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