Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-10-13
paign in the carpathians reached a dead.

I RdASAA IA LIN SdIl0kIll0lA0 NAAO a
lock.
BY this time Hindenburg and Macken-
! sen had discovered the Russian weakness.
First, the tandard of Russian officers had
been terribly lowered. as the
found out from prisoners. The supply OF
officers in all armies is limited, and pro-
motions must be made from the ranks.
But the Russian non-commissioned off,
GERS and men, like so per cent OF the Rus
sian nation, can neither read nor write.
An officer who can not read and write Is
just about as much use in a modern army
as he would be in the employ Of the
Standard Oil company. Therefore the Ger
mans realized that while such a person.
mel might manage to carry on a defensive
wal in trenches, they would stand no
chance at all in the complicated maneu-
vers of open fighting. The Russians sin
Of restraining education because Of its
'unsettling" effect on the popular mind
had certainly found them out.
Unable to Mobilize Industry.
Secondly, Hindenburg and Mackensen
knew that the Russian ammunition was
running low. Before the war. Germans
and Russians alike believed that the war
was bound to be a short one, and alike
believed that enough ammunition for six
months was enough ammunition. Within
a few weeks every staff in Europe real
lied that the war was going to be long.
CIV 9ClAIdIly, kAuSlIld, EIdllCc, Italy anu
England began to devote half their ener-
giles to making ammunition. But when 1t
came to industrial mobilization poor Rus
sia, best prepared at the outset with her
French shells built with French money,
gasped and quit. She simply had not
reached that stage of civilization where
industrial mobilization is possible. And
no nation which can not face that prob
lem will ever win a serious war again.
The campaign which began in May at
Tarnov and Gorlice, and which is still go
Ing on, was lost before it was begun. For
Russia 1t Is an awful tragedy. The Rus
Sian soldier. as brave, as enduring, as well
disciplined q soldier as lives in the world
today, has fought with a loyalty which
ought to command the admiration Of the
ages. He has died-whole armies of him
fighting rifemen with clubs. And he is
fighting still.
There Is only one thing which the Grand
Duke Nicholas can do now, and that is to
retire In as good order as he can, and to
hope that the Germans will stop. In the
present state of feeling the Russian armies
will retire, still fighting, to the Ural. noun
tatns.
All Depends on Germany.
Everything therefore depends on the
German plans. Hindenburg's plans-the
simple plans Of a soldier-will simply be
to reduce the military power. by disinte-
VI SoPSOAS dS AOW dS Io can, ana
In that endeavor he is no doubt prepared
to advance any distance. But from a po-
litical standpoint the German government
mas probably other plans.
Germany wishes first Poland, which she
already has Won. She would like to make
1T a buffer state under a princeling of the
house OF Hapsburg. Secondly she wishes
Bessarabia, to give to Rumania. This
province the Austrians will probably try
to occupy, with raids in the direction OF
kiev, the capital of Little Russia, for
kiev is said to be a hotbed of Instruction
against the czar. Very likely this will not
be more thar a raid, as neither Austria
nor Germany desires Little Russia. Third
~, Germany would like the Baltic prov
inces OF Courland. already taken, Liyonia.
and Esthonia as far as the shores of tha
Gulf OF Finland. These three provinces
were once under the rule of the Teutonic
knights. a sentimental reason for their
occupation; but in addition the upper
classes there are Of German descent and
German sympathies. Nor is Petrograd far
away from the Esthonian border. and I
believe the political aims of the German
mpa are Petrograd and Odessa
But Hindenburg Is hard to control: the
Reorganization of the Russian armies can
not at this time be calculated; and there
Is no doubt that If military objects pre-
vail over political ones. the German cam.
paign will follow the Russian armies
wherever they may go.