Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-07-04
he Only Way.

1T is Germany's military force that we
must beat. 1t is not enough to force her to
submission by economic pressure. A peace
imposed Germany exhausted in food and
materials only would not be durable 1t
would be a moral defeat for the Allies The
Germans could say they had beaten us in bat
tie and made peace only because we had
starved their women and children. That peace
we don't want. Only crushing military vic
tory will bring the peace for which the Allies
are fighting, and of which Germany will UNI
derstand the meaning. That victory we shall
have; it will be complete and fnal"
These lines from a recent statement of David
Lloyd-George, British Minister of Munitions, sum
up a policy which reason less than valor con-
strains the Allies to pursue There were theo-
80 who predicted that economic exhaustion would
bring the war TO an end within six months or a
year. but it is approaching its third summer with
no sign of collapse that account The Central
Powers, it is true, hard presseu Oy dearth of
food and other necessaries while their financial
resources are severely strained, but there is no
evidence of them being starved to surrender. If
Germany is bent upon resistance at any sacrifice,
she cannot be defeated by lean larder unless the
war drags on indefinitely. If her resolution stands
mistaken, she can keep up the fight so long she
has men and munitions. A conclusive and lasting
peace must be won by victory of arms
and developments on the several battle fronts in
dictate that it soon will be put supremely to test.
The Russian onslaught in the East. together with
a renewal of the Italian offensive in the TTentino,
seems to point the way to the long deferred British
drive in the West. While naction in that quarter
has been puzzling to distant observers, there is
evidently a thorough understanding between the
French and British leaders. The French could re-
gard the German thrust at Verdun composedly
enough so long as it was costing the enemy at the
rate of two to one in men witnout seriously
threatening the French army If the fortress
should fall now, it would be of military
when the Germans have spent their force will
prove far effective doubt than if it had
been undertaken months ago.
While victory in the field must be the decisive
force in the war, economic pressure is impor-
tant influence; and it is counting heavily against
the Central Empires. All the belligerents un-
der financial strain, but Germany most of all Be
sides carrying her own burden, she has had to go
far in financing her allies. 1t is said that up to
last March she had lent four hundred and fifty
million dollars to Austria, three hundred million
to Turkey and one hundred million to Bulgaria.
Besides her shortage of food she is beggared of
raw material particularly that needed for textile
industries The New York Journal of Commerce,
quoting from the Vorwaerts of recent date, says:
The embargo the raw materials re-
quired in these trades has deprived quite
half the number of workers of their employ
ment and the administrative board of Ber-
lin has had to consider urgent unemployment
measures and relief grants The Social Demo-
cratic members of the corporation strongly
object to the utter inadeduacy'' of the Off
cia scheme, lin view of the unheard of high
prices of the necessaries of life and the tre-
mendous depreciation of the value of money"
This latter phase of Germany's economic trou-
bles is, perhaps, the most ominous. There
be no question that the great weakness of the
war finance of Germany is the flooding of the
country with paper money. About the end of
November, 1915, a Swiss authority placed the
amount of German money in circulation at
S3,22S,35 900. of which new notes created
since August Z, 1914. amounted to $2.1O3,-
$50, 900. Side by side with this legal circula-
ton there exists circulation of about ST.
500. 900 in private bank notes, and of
s25OOOO. 900 in war credit bank notes. There
are altogether about S4,35O, 900 900 notes in
circulation, all of which rest ultimately, either
directly upon the $625, 100000 gold held by
the Reichsbank.
These conditions inevitably will tell upon Ger
many's nerve and snew for wthstanding the
highly offensive which soon late the Allies will
launch Heretofore her armies have taken the
initiative and though winning decisive results
have presented a brave and brilliant front. Her
people have been buoyed by great expectations
Already they are being disusioned, and if now
they are faced by a retreating army the economic
pressure which grips them will become more and
more intoerable.