The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1916-08-01
The Daily Pioneer receives !
wire service of the United
Press Association.
HIS PAPER REPRESENTED FOR FOREIGN
ADVERTISING BY THE
THEIR LAST STAND.
By J. w. 7. Mason

By J. W. 7. Mason
Written for the United Press)
The warning nations of Europe are
at their last stand, as they enter to-
day upon the third year of the con-
f1ict
Two years of prodigal expendi-
lures, of enormous losses and of in
decisive victories and defeats have
led up to the final phase of the great
struggle which discloses neither side
able as yet to dictate terms to the
other. The allies and the central en-
pires have not even decided among
themselves as to the details Of their
own terms. This must be the prin-
cipal work Of their statesmen during
the third year of the war.
The two years of conflict have dem
onstrated that in war as complex
as is the European struggle, other
forces beside those controlled by the
militarists play an increasingly i'm
portant part in the final outcome.
The present war map, showing the
German lines extending far into the
enemy countries, and showing also the
loss of Germany colonial empire, is
but one element that must enter into
any discussions Of peace. Lines on
either side may, hold but once the
enemy establishes a definite superior
ity in killing power, this, fact
will have a new bearing on peace
negotiations.
Three other influences are at work
in the final phase of the war: finan-
cial, economic and food. Financially,
Europe at large is approaching limit
of impossible taxation after the war,
to pay the interest on the money now
being so readily borrowed under the
influence of patriotic fervor. Bellig-
erent statesmen are entering upon the
third year of the war with serious
financial misgivings that will prob
ably stimulate interest in peace as
new borrowings of billions become
necessary. It is practically certain
that in some of the warning nations,
thinly disguised seizures of property
will have to be made to pay the war
bills, even if the war doesn't last "a
day longer. If peace continues to be
evasive as far into the third year
of the war, there will be few coun-
tries that in the end will be able to
avoid widespread confiscation.
Economically, the two years Of
warfare have not been disastrous for
any of the principal belligerents.
Workingmen's wages, in general, have
risen higher than the increased cost
Of living. The dispatch of SO many
millions of men to the front and the
use Of so many millions more in m,l-
nitions factories have caused a scare
ity Of ordinary labor throughout
Europe.
The central empires, however, will
feel a serious economic strain when
the war is over, because their supply
of raw materials is rapidly becoming
exhausted. The allies have been able
to import raw materials continuously
during the war, while Germany and
Austro-Hungary have had to live on
their reserves. How to purchase raw
i materials from abroad in sufficient
Quantities to provide for the millions
Of Teuton soldiers returning to work
shops and factories after peace is de-
clared, will present a serious problem
for Berlin and Vienna to- solve.
For two years the supply of food
in the Teutonic countries has been
constantly dropping. The enforce
ment of a low dietary scale upon the
Germans has undoubtedly had some
depressing moral effects, but there
is as yet no evidence that actual star
walton for the mass of the people is
imminent. If the Russian armies,
however, can reach the grain fields
and cattle pastures of Hungary and
Galicia before the August harvesting
is over, the Teutons may yet be starv-
ed into surrender. But as the third
year of the war begins it seems as If
the Russian offensive started too late
to accomplish this objective.