The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-02-13
SIX MONTHS OF WAR.

was that peace seemed as distant, Ill
most more distant than 1t did in Sep
TENDER, writes Frank II. Simmonds In
the American Review Of Reviews Tor
February in an article entitled Hall
Year of World War" Yet II the
close of the conflict remained still a
subject for speculation, 1t was now
plain that the issue had been deter
mined in September and that all that
had happened since the battle OF the
Marine had in fact been the natural
consequence Of one more decisive bat
tie OF the world. On fields and hills
but little distant from the plain where
Roman civilization turned back Attila,
the German bid for world supremacy.
the kaiser's chance to play Napoleon
were abolished.
In the opening month Of the war
there was a chance. q real chance that
Germany might destroy France be-
fore Russia was up, force Russia to
make terms before England was ready
and then, master Of the continent as
the France of Napoleon. renew the
duel with the British empire that
France had abandoned precisely a
century before. After the battle OF
the Marine the chance had vanished.
Week by week, month by month, Rus
sian. British, French military power
developed. increased. On January 20.
Germany held less of France than on
September 1; instead of a 100000
British troops. the advance guard OF
fresh million were already in Elan
ders; French troops were breaking out
in Alsace.
In the period between the battle of
the Marine and January 1915, Ger
many had made three great cam
paigns. On the User the very flower
of her troops had gone down under
the eyes Of the kaiser in frantic at
tempt to gain the French coast cities,
to grasp the eastern shore of the
Straits Of Dover, to get within reach
of the hated Englishman's home. A
first attempt to seize Warsaw, to
crush Russia, France being indie
structible, had failed before the Polish
capital. A second offensive into Po-
land after great victories and terrible
losses had come to q halt before the
Bzura.
Six months after war had begun
Germany was still faced by three
great nations, their military force
wholly unSndhcH, lAcAI al AiACS sum
gaining in numbers. their deficiencies
in artillery, in machinery all but made
good Such advantage as her pre-
paredness had given her, the credit
balance in her favor. was now ex-
hausted.
In the same period her Austrian ally
had three times been beaten almost
to her knees by Russian victories. was
now facing an invasion across the
Carpathians into Hungary. Twice,
too, the Hapsburg emperor had seen
splendid armies ANONYMOUSLY routed,
destroyed by the hated Serbs, who in
their turn we're preparing to flow over
the Danube into Hungary.
Around the world the German
hopes had equally proven vain. The
Turk had suffered disaster, the Holy
War had fallen to empty nothing, the
South African revolution had flickered
out as an abortive revolt, with no
other permanent consequence than to
insure the loss of German Southwest
Africa. In Asia her colony had dis
appeared into Japanese hands, in the
Pacific her islands were lost irrevoca-
bly,, in Africa her remaining colonies
were being slowly but steadily con-
sumed by her enemies as one eats an
artichoke, leaf by leaf.
To balance this, Germans could still
point to conquered lands and prov
inces. In Poland. in Flanders. in
Champagne her lines held. her coun-
ter attacks regained lost trenches
regularly. In Alsace, along the Aisne,
in Artois and Belgium. Anglo-French
attacks, ambitious offensive, were
speedily beaten down. East and west
Germany was still a match for her
enemies, but east and west the mo-
ment for victory had passed, irrevoca-
bly, passed. east and west German
operations more and more tended to-
ward the defensive. What Gettysburg
had been to the south, the Marine was
now proving to have been to Germany.
Nowhere in January was there the
slightest sign of new promise for Ger
man victory and what was true in
January had been true in the earlier
months.
Half a year of war had given his
tory one more decisive battle, for
Europe conceivably the greatest in
permanent meaning since Waterloo.
In that battle it had been decided that
Europe should still be European and
not Prussian. At the Marine, France
had saved herself and Europe: after
the Marine the problem was how long
it would take Europe to conquer Ger
many, and in January 1t was unmis-
taxable that as yet Europe had made
no progress.
TECHNICALLY OF THE LAW.
1t is because OF the inability of any
system of knowledge to entirely COM
prehend and cover the field of its