The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-22
LETTERS TO EDITOR
The Allies Last Drive

l 10 the EOllOr or The AS6-Her9lQ.
 Just from all outward appearances, it ! looks as if the allies should win in run | But they are not so much as winning | in a creep. Summing up all advantages and disadvantages of both sides and balancing them as they are, we find Ger many not to the disadvantage that the world accords her. It may sound absurd, but in the stand-off of such an account, Germany has a balance to her credit, which will make her victorious in the end.
 that this conflict is not Germany's first conflict with the world. Frederick the Great had to confront the whole com bined world against him. He fought his enemies to a stand-off and terminated that worldwide war in a draw. Frederick had greater odds against him than has Kaiser William And if William does not | accomplish more than draw, he will not accomplish as much as his great uncle. Frederick the Great, did
 | Yes, the allies have a greater number of men for service than have the cen- tral powers. But such was the relation l Great The Germans are shrewder geniuses, better straegists and greater warriors than any other race of people. | They tore the old Roman empire to pieces. They gave the first religious freedom
 to the Christian world. They established
 the first political liberty for the Christian era. They set aside the Napoleonic
 scourge for the British They with the
 French, freed America, when the majority
 of American English played tory for the mother country. They are the men of the north" whom God referred to through His prophets as elected to break
 the yoke of Roman bondage, to give
 liberty to the human race and to main- tain the same. Who wants to crush a
 nation of people that has brought so much
 to the world? Who can annihilate a
 race whom God has ordained for other purposes?
 The allies are making their last des-
 perate effort three or four-mile in-
 dentation of only an IS or 20-mile portion
 of our 45o-mile front is very poor show ing for 100000 fresh additional troops
 in three weeks time. At other points
 along this front, Germany is offsetting | that indentation with gains of her own.
 So the western front is now a stand-off ! within less than one month of the new
 offensive, which shows the inability of the
 allies to hurl the Germans back, and | WHICH QeHlOnSlrdteS that the Sermans
 will be able to push the allies further | in front of them.
 It appears as if it is the strategy of
 the central powers to withdraw from at
 least a portion of Russia's front. Their greatest success against Russia has been in two former drives. Dropping back
 nearer their base for third drive looks l to be their best procedure. This would
 put Russia further from her base. But l Germany is in possession of the better course to pursue If she attempts to hold her present Russian line, it shows that the central powers are far from be- 1 ing exhausted If Germany retreats from
 that line it cannot be taken as conclu- | sive evidence that the central powers are | exhausted in strength. The central pow | CTS are now maintaining the greatest cir | conference ever; and with their former Russian successes, the retreat would look
 more like piece of strategy for another l Russian drive.
 The allies are fighting to crush. The
 central powers are fighting for existence This is Britain's commercial war. They
 who fight for existence fight harder and longer than they who fight to crush There are more spirit and determination in defense than in offense. Besides, the central powers are better equipped, have more points of strategy. and are more freely unanswered from front to front than are the allies. These features. and al | ways being nearer their base than are l the allies to theirs, more than offset a lack in equal number of men for the | central powers. Again, the Germans | take life and its accompaniments as q matter of fact and put their ideals into | real service. Engishmen look upon life | and its accompaniments as a matter o v theory and treat the most of their ideals
 as phantoms. Their chief pursuits ara