The Washington herald., 1914-12-07

Whatever is to happen now II is plain
that France is not to be destroyed.
When the great war is completed
France will retain her place as a great
in European combinations. Four months
of furious fighting have settled this.
In late August. in early September.
Sedan seemed possible. At the close
of November France has escaped any
real disaster and, with British re-en-
forcements, has checked every German
offensive in the west since the battle
Of the Marub.
Germans May Not Win.
Europe dominated by tine Kaiser is
henceforth a thing inconceivable so
long as there remains in being the
grand alliance which has been formed
by three great powers and two small
states to face the Austro-German coall
tion. In the military sense IL is too
.arly to talk of a conquered Germany,
but IT is no longer premature to assert
that the vision of a conQuering Ger
many has been laid to rest
AS October opened Russia claimed the
center of the stage. German strategy
had planned in the opening weeks of
the war to crush France while Austria
held Russia in check and Britain was
still gathering its unready hosts. But
while France was defeating the Ger
mans at the Marne the Russian armies
were beating down Austrian armies.
carrying the war into East Prussia and
far into Galicia-
From the battle of the Marne to the
present hour the problem OF the Ger
mans has been the Same. Always IT
was their design. their necessity. to
hold back the Russians until they
should crush the western allies or at
the least so arrange their battle line
in Belgium and northern France that
they could turn east and deal with the
Car.
In this they have doubly failed. All
the enormous concentration OF men in
the west has not availed to advance
their front from the position to which
IT came on October IL; all the desper-
ate. terrible fighting along the User and
the Lys has left them where they stood
when, Antwerp fallen, they began a
new drive for the Channel and France.
In this time. too. conditions in the
west have changed wholly. Day by day
come reports of the arrival of British
re-enforcements. France too. i'll pre-
pared to meet German masses, has in
part remedied the deficiency. Artillery
and muskets, clothes and shoes, all
these have been collected. America has
been called upon and has sent vast car
goes.
Danger to Germans in France.
Today it is hard to believe that the
allies do not possess an equal number
OF men. II in fact they are not superior
to the Germans in number. Tomorrow.
when Kitchener's million is in Flanders
and Artois. who can doubt that German
inferiority in numbers will be danger
Gus to German safety in France and
Western Belgium?
fa in aat n ~
German hopes is most apparent. Three
times the Kaisers generals have driven
eastward in their effort to relieve Aus
tria from the eyer-growing pressure of
Russian masses in Galicia.
Three times German armies have
stormed forth toward the Niemen and
the Vistula. The first effort failed at
advance now well established in East
Prussia. The second drive, that at War
saw, was more successful For the mo-
ment Russian armies fell back from
Galicia and Bukovina, receded in Po-
land until the Kaiser's artillery was
audible in the Polish capital.
But the opening days of November
saw German armies again in retreat.
All through November Russian armies
flowed back into Galicia. Again they
crossed the Carpathians, again they oc-
cupled Czernowitz and swept Bukovina.
Today Cracow, menaced from three
sides. seems a mere island in the on
coming Russian flood, while the Hun
garisn plain is open to Cossack raiders.
November. too. saw one more desper-
ate, daring venture Of German strategy
to save Galicia, Austria. Once more a
German force was driven eastward
along the Vfstula toward Warsaw.
made progress, then came to a halt. is
now in retreat. 1t is not necessary
to accept any fraction Of Russian ru-
NOR to perceive the single essential
venture failed absolutely. since 1t
brought no relief to Galician or East
Prussian lands.
More and more II is becoming clear
that German resources, great as they
are, German courage and military skill,
splendid as they are, are inadequate to
bridge the fatal gap between the num-
ber of the two battle lines, while step
by step Austrian assistance descends
to the point where Francis Joseph must
become not a shining second" but an
added burden.
Consider the whole problem of Ger
man strategy-to hold Russia back
with a fraction of its armies while 1t
crushed France by weight of numbers
and IT becomes clear that failure in the
east and west foreshadows the time
completely on the defensive.
Not Superior Numerically.
Four months of effort have not avail ]
ed to end the war in the west. II Ger |
many has not reached her maximum
strength in the field she has passed |
the point where she can hope to re- |
tain numerical superiority on either |
front. Such superiority as she has had |
in Flanders, and France too, since the |
battle of the Marine has enabled her to |
do nothing but hold her lines and wear |
out her strength in terrific assaults |
upon the intrenched allies.
To all Americans the November cam
paign must inevitably suggest the his |
tory of the Confederacy in 1863. As the |
Germans have been defeated in Fland- |
ers and in Poland, so in 1863 the Con-
federacy failed at Gettysburg and |
Vicksburg. As Gettysburg was the su-
preme effort of the South, so the battle |
of the ser seems the ultimate attempt |
of Germany in the west.
After Gettysburg and Vicksburg the |
South, cut of from the outside world |
even more completely than the German |
empire, outnumbered, inferior alike in |
wealth and resource, continued for two
years to make a resistance which lives |
as the enduring example of what men |
and women can do when their hearts |
and their whole spirit are enlisted.