Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-11-08

Tor Two years more, because they be-
lleVe that 1T will take most of his time
TO exhaust the man power of the CEN
lfal powers. But, even at the
When n central powers feel the pinch.
they can temporarily save their situa-
tion by shortening their lines, going
tack for example, in the west, to a line
from the Dutch frontier through Liese
ana Luxembourg to Metz.
only one thing is certain; we can't
say when exhaustion will come. be-
cause we can only guess at the figures
Oh casualties. But we can say that il
Will come, that it viii come to the
weaker party, which is the central al
nance first, and that II viii come while
me opposing alliance has stHl abun.
dant supply of men to keep its armies
at the maximum of necessary strength
Comfortably. the Germans may win tM
war, possibly the allies may win ths
war; but III it goes on as it is now go
ing. II 1T turns on battle losses. if il re
mains a contest of attrition, the uiti
mate outcome is patent.
o IN such SPACE as remains to me
l desire to set forth a few more fig
ures. an estimate OF the cost in casual
Ties OF the campaign of the present
year, that is from January to the end
OF october. In this time l believe the
French have lost 400. 0OO-250,oGO at
v y tiip IOC,VUu Il tAc N'pitlIIiC Sllu
elsewhere; the British 1905 00-mainly
at the Somme; the Italians 200, 1000 and
the Russians 100000. This last is
the German estimate of Russian cas-
ualtles since june 1t is high, but ]
accept 1T, only stretching it to include
the operations prior to June, which
We're not very expensive. All told, the
allies have thus lost 1000, 900.
Now as to the central powers The
German loss at Verdun was not less
than 100000. AT the Somme 1t has
been around 100000. including all other
casualties on the western front. De-
tending themselves at The Somme the
Germans have lost about half as many
men as their assailants. AT Verdun.
where they We're the assailants. they
lost at a similar ratio. On the eastern
and Balkan front the German loss
has been not less than 100000. the price
of checking the Russian drive. All told
the German loss has been 100000. As
for the A%ustrians. they ave lost at
least 100000. including over 100000
prisoners. mainly to the Russians.
Now examine these last figures and
allied tactics Of pounding have been.
combined with the German failure at
Verdun. In about 10 months the Ger
mans and Austrians. who started with
a man power, let us say of $4,000. 900.
or 10 per cent of their total popula-
IlOI. nave lOSL i,t0V,UUU Al hlIlGU,
wounded and captured. and this Is
more than IA per cent Of their total.
In the same time the allies have lost
1000. 900. rather less than Z per cent
of their original man power. again aD-
plying the 10 per cent rule. In other
words. the rate of exhaustion of the
central powers this year has been
twice as great in relation to their total
as that of the allies. 1t is
my Judgment, too, that the figures l
have given are low for the central
powers and high for their enemies.
ment. We have official Russian figures
to prove that 100000 prisoners were
taken by the Russians in their great
advance. and these figures were re-
peated in debates in the Hungarian
chamber. We have the Italian claim
zia drive n Anglo-French claims. Of
ficially made, of the capture Of at least
5000 Germans at the Somme. Here
is a loss in prisoners Of not less than
525, 900 for the central powers
AS against this the Germans have
claimed about the same number Of
Italian prisoners taken chiefly In the
Trentine drive. German and Austrian
reports have not claimed more than
10000 Russian prisoners his year.
Thus the loss in prisoners of the allies
is more than two and a half times less
i IIId IlltS u III SOIlIIoi pONCio tftSI
their permanent loss, by reason of the
years campaign, is thus less than that
of their enemies. Able, because of
their superior population, to bear much
larger absolute losses than their enc
mics, the allies have actually suffered
losses absolutely not merely relatively
smaller.
In our own civil war Grant was the
first union commander to grasp the
logic Of attrition. He applied 1T UNI
hesitatingly, he accepted h response
bility for colossal losses that did not
bring any advantage upon the battle
field for many months, because he fore
saw that the time would come when the
south, although it's losses were actually
smaller thar his own, would not be able
to replace the casualties out Of its in
ferior population. Allied logic, strategy.
policy are Grants, they are doing what
he did, they are fighting his kind of a
battle with equally great u in
numbers, II not in material, and with
the control of the sea and superior A.
nancial powers. which the north pos
sessed. For Americans the civil war
parallel was never more illuminating
than at h present moment.
The Bow Paddisr.
Contrary to the general notion about