The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1916-04-21
THE WORLDS GREATEST BATTLE

The battle Of Verdun.-if battle it
may be called is from the number Of
men engaged, tom the length Of
ts,ae il slszs eantinae 81. ss>e lesszll
inflicted, from the fury Of onslaught
after onsIuaught through a period
now in excess Of two months, the most
stupendous battle in the history Of
the world. 1t may be, for all time to
come, the greatest of the worlds bat
ties. Men have been dreaming of an
era when men shall beat their swrds
into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks, and when the world
shall not know war any more. II that
era is ever to come, there is every rea-
son to expect it hard upon the close ei
a war that involves the greater part OF
the worlds population than my r.t
yious war has ever done. if.-.an,--
is capable of living ut peace With ~
self, it should be able 10 arrive a: Ds.-
sis for such living following Li..s ia
flict.
And just as this is the greatest of
all wars, Verdun stands to be the
greatest battle of this greatest war.
The nine weeks Of fighting lready done
does not constitute the whole, What
is to follow may be more stupendous
than what has gone befre. The Ger
man emperr is reported as having re-
Gently said: "The war of 1870 was
decided at Paris; the present war must
end at Verdun" At about the same
time, the ranking French general con-
cluded an order to his soldiers with the
words "Have courage, we will get
them" These statements are conelu-
sive of two things. First, the Ger
mans have no intention of abandoning
the efforts to take Verdun. Second,
the French have no intention of per-
mitting Verdun to be taken. 1t is not
only conclusive, but probable, that the
conflict will be concluded around that
fortress, that before either the attack
or the defense gives way, one side or
the other will have bled white, and
that the war will end-at least that
the decisive stroke will be made-on
the line where the contending forces
have so long been in deadlock.
Activities on the various other
fronts, stretching over hundreds of
miles, are, in the present aspect of
things, of decidedly minor Importance
They have played their part, are con-
tinuing to play their part in inhict-
ing what looks to be the supreme
event. But Verdun will probably
stand out as the supreme event of the
war. To all intents and purposes it
will probably be the war. And, if it is
that, it will be also the great divide
between the order of things that has
been and the order of things that is to
be. After Verdun-if Verdun is what
it seems to be, and what both sides
believe it to be-the world can never
again be what it was, and that is true
regardless Of whether Germany push
es the French back or whether France
holds the Germans in their trenches
until their strength is gone. By the
side Of Verdun, Salamis, Waterloo,
Saratoga-all of the fifteen battles
that Greasy in his matchless work
classes as decisive-will fall into com
parative insignihcance.
yerdun, if it really is what it now
appears to be, win take its place in
history as the line between eras as the
fail of the Roman empire, as the Rem
aisance, as the Protestant reforma-
tion- possibly more distinctive, even,
than any Of these, because it comes as