The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-02-04
SIX MONTHS OF WAR
Six months after the outbreak of Il

Yet if the close Of the conflict re
t NAMED still a subject for speculation
!, it was now plain that the issue hat
been determined in September and thai
all that had happened since the Battle
of the Marine had In fact been the
natural consequence of one more de
cisIye battle of the world. On fields
and hills but little distant from the
plain where Roman civilization turned
back AJtila, 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, a real chance that
Germany might destroy France before
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 be-
fore. After the Battle of the Marine
the chance had vanished. Week by
week, month by month, Russian, Brit
ish, French military power developed,
increased. On January 20, Germany
held less of France than on Septem-
Der /; instead of a 100000 British
troops, the advance guard of a fresh
million were already in Flanders;
French troops were breaking out In
Alsace.
In the period between the Battle of
the Marine and January, 1915, Germany
had made three great campaigns. On
the User the very flower of her troops
had gone down under the eyes of the
Kaiser in a frantic attempt to gain the
French coast cities, to grasp the east
ern shore of the Straits of Dover, to
get within reach of the hated English
mans home. A first attempt to seize
Warsaw, to crush Russia, France being
indestructible, had failed before the
Polish capital. A second offensive
into Poland, after great victories and
terrible losses had come to a halt be-
fore the Bzura.
Six months after war had begun
Germany was still faced by three great
nations, their military force wholly un-
shaken. their armies still gaining in
numbers. their deficiencies in artillery,
in machinery all but made good. Such
advantage as her preparedness had
given her, the credit balance in her
favor, was now exhausted.
In the same period her Austrian ally
had three times been beaten almost to
her knees by Russian victories, was
pathians into Hungary. Twice, too,
the Hapsburg Emepror had seen splen-
armies ANONYMOUSLY routed, de-
stroyed by the hated Serbs, who in
turn were 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
revolution had flickered out
as ar abortive revolt, with no other
consequence than to insure
the loss of German Southwest Africa.
In Asia her colony had disappeared
into Japanese hands, in the Pacific
her islands were lost ~irrevocably, in
her remaining colonies were
being slowly but steadily consumed
by her enemies as one eats an arti-
leaf by leaf.
To balance this, Germans could still
point to conquered lands and provinces.
in Poland, in Flanders, in Champagne
her lines held, her counter-attacks re-
lost trenches regularly. In
along the Aisne, in Artois and
Belgium, Anglo-French attacks. am
offensive, were speedily beaten
down. East and west Germany was
still a match for her enemies, but east
and west the moment for victory had
~irrevocably passed, east and
west German operations more and
more tended toward the defensive.
What Gettysburg had been to the
South. the Marine was now proving to
nave been to Germany. Nowhere in
was there the slightest sign
Of new promise for German 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
conceivably the greatest in
meaning since Waterloo. In
hat battle it had been decided that
should still be European and
not Prussian. At the Marine, France
had saved herself and Europe; after
he Marine the problem was how long
t would take Europe to conquer Ger
many. and in January 1t was unmis.
that as yet Europe had made