Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-12-13
Rumania's Collapse--
Another Hundred DAYS

A0N
not east OF Bucharest. not coming from
the DobrudJa. but far To the west at
Zimneca. But at Zimneca his troops
are behind the mass of the Rumanian
armies laclng west and fighting along
Ihe All. or facing north and holding the
PENNSYLVANIA mountains from Red
Tower to Predeal.
AS | write the position of the Ruma-
mans remains in doubt. but all the in
formation at hand points to a success
1ul drive OF Mackensen which would
lnterpose between the Runnanians and
Their capital. for the fall of Alexandria
Is reported, and Alexandria is 40 miles
east Of the Alt ana less than 80 from
the Rumanian capital.
Recall now the mission of Kluck in
the FAMOUS rush upon Paris. He car
RED the end of a net which was pinned
down by the other German armies from
switzerland westward. His effort was
10 lnterpose between Paris and the al
he'd left. the armies of Field Marshal
French and General Lanzerac. Now
the situation in Rumania is on all tours
with earlier condition. The Ru-
nanIan armies are half surrounded by
the semlcircle of German armies reach
ING from the Predeal pass all the way
round 10 they are threat
ened. not alone with the loss of conn
munication, with their capital, but with
ompiete development and capture,
with a Sedan. three or four times mag
nlfled, which may be the greatest vic
tory of the war, viewed as a single
contest.
All this is only possible: it is, as yet,
far from certain. We must know many
hlngs about the situation before we
can pronounce the Rumanian situation
hopeless or wen desperate: that it is
grave no one a deny. We do not
Know the actual state of the troops.
lhey may be completely shaken and
without the necessary strength for a
lresh stand. They may be still capable
OF a blow recalling the French blow at
the Marine. The fact that the Germans
report so few captures of men or guns
gives a measure of hope to the allies.
II lhe Rumanlan army is still UNI
shaken. II it is in any measure COM
parable in spirit and training to the
French armies that retreated from the
Sombre and the Mouse to the Marine,
men we may yet see a counter thrust.
Inc German strategy has been daring
IN the extreme. 1t has been a deliber-
ate rlsking of all on a single throw, and
J there is every chance that it may sue
coed. We can see the immense possi-
Dllltles OF the present situation; but on
the other hand we must recall that the
french general who directs Rumanian
strategy is a pupil of Joffre and learned
the lesson of the Marine on the ground.
AGAIN we know next to nothing of
what Russia is doing save in Moldavia
and the Dobrudia. Only the faintest
suggestions have come to us of Rus
Sian operations although we know very
considerable Russian forces have been
sent into Rumania. Certainly not all
OF THESE have been consumed In the
sterile campaign in the Dobrudja or in
the defensive stand along the Media
Wan frontier. Not impossibly a new
Russian Amy will presently appear
west of Bucharest at the Argelu as
army appeared in front of
Paris at the critical IN in the
opening campaign of the war.
looking at the map it will be seen
that the Rumanian and Russian armies
would be able to stand in front of Blu
charest and before tie railroad that
comes south from Predeal and passing
thlough Bucharest reaches the Danube
on the bank of the river facing the
Rustchuk. Both flanks would thus be
covered. one by the mountains and the
other by the Danube. Such a --,si-
ton would be threatened only rom the
Danube east of Rustchuk. where Mac
kensen still holds Turtucan. Silistria
and Cernavoda But il q crossing of
the river could be made at any of these
points then Bucharest would have to
be abandoned and there would be a new
peril of development. And it must all
ways be remembered hat Mackensen
holds the Cernavoda bridge-thanks to
the failure Of the Rumanians to de-
Il 4 Wy \, q ItIiQie lIIul lildN vet prove
fatal.
Such very briefly is the history and
such are the possibilities of the Ru-
manian campaign to date. Already
half n more than half OF Wallachia
has been occupied. Already the front
ened by several hundred miles. for the
first defensive front. which followed
the great curve of Rumania. thrust
between Bulgaria and TRANSATLANTIC.
has been transformed into IA straight
line crossing Rumania along the Alt
from Red Tower to the Danube. and
as the Germans advance eastward they
are still shortening the lire. Even il
they do not get Bucharest and the
campai2n ends in a trench deadlock
before the Rumanian capital. the cen
trail powers will. nave Immensely short
ened their front. taken some of the
richest wheat land in the world and
probably laid hands upon the oil wells
thew need SO greatly.
How shall one explain his great tri-
umph? Chiefly by recalling that the
campaign has been conducted on the
German side by the two great strate-
gists of the central powers. Mackensen
and Falkenhayn. But with superior
generalship has gone an enormously
superior train Of artillery. The Ru-
manian armies have beer defeated. as
We're III french in Lorraine and Bel
gian Luxembourg, by shell fire from
gur4 beyond the reach of their own
artillery. They were i'll prepared for
such a storm and they have fallen be-
fore it as did the French in the first
DAYS OF the war.
Is Rumania to be a second Belgium.
another Serbia? At least this now
seems probable. There remains the
possibility of a rally. OF the application
OF the strategy Of Joffre to the Walla-
chan campaign. This is extremely un-
likely: but it is not yet impossible. Un-