New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-15

Its service should not import lillmita-
bic supplies of labor.
Seven Months viii Tell.
As | have foreshsdowed, Germany
will make prodigious efforts not only
to maintain but to increase her output
of machine guns, artillery shells,
bombs and all the rest of the Internal
apparatus of this war. But now we
can reckon her maximum In that re-
spect and know that in the long run
We can Ovcrwhelm IL. In new inyen-
ton we have proved as good.
In four months, then, or seven at the
very most, the Central Empires will
nave exhausted their reserves, while
the Allies relative battering power and
assaulting power will increase more
and more up TO the end OF the war.
We have now to follow up the conse-
qucnces OF that fact. Already Germany
can no longer transfer troops 70 any
effective extent from theatre to the
atre. She will then be unable to trans
fer troops effectively even from sector
to sector.
Whenever the Central Empires get to
that point-which may be reached
sooner on the Eastern front, but must
follow on the Western they will only
be able TO thicken any part Of their
line By exposing some other part to
disastrous and irremedlable rupture.
The Allies first "thoroughbreak"
somewhere will be followed by other
thoroughbreaks." The enemy fronts
will be rolled up By sections. The
whole consolidated system Of trench
defence will be smashed up into re-
treating fragments.
TeutOns' Ruinous Policy.
The longer the enemy tried to hold
his present extended lines becoming
ever thinner and more rigid when once
the power of rapid reinforcement was
lost the more ruinous would be the
process Of rupture under the Allies
pressure. Then Germans and Aus
trans alike under final conditions OF
open warfare would not only be pushed
back. but swept back and smashed
right and left, until the war closed with
the total destruction Of the military
power Of the Central Empires and their
confederates. Thus, it might hasten
and enhance the completeness OF the
Allies victory not to gain too much
ground in the present phase.
The enemy, on the other hand. might
choose betimes a fighting retirement,
beginning with retreat IT, the East. His
lines would be much shortened. The
c-ntest would be somewhat more pro-
longed We do not see what could
change the issue, nor, indeed, very
much retard it. When once Hungary,
as well as Gaicia, was overrun in the
East and Rumanian supplies were cut
off no final military measures on Ger
many's part would avail. Nothing like
sufficient food supply could any
longer be maintained. The economic
foundations of the whole country would
collapse.
"G0tterdammerung of Hapsburgs."
Whether there would be "a revolu-
ton" or not depends on what is meant
by revolution. That popular outbreaks
Would be avoided in the cities. and es
pecially in the densely inhabited in
dustrial West of Germany, seems i'm
riCbable. BY one means or another the
ration would come to reckoning with
its ruling dynasty and the war caste.
Il would be the Gotterdammerung Of
the Hapsburgs and their war system. II
would be a worlds deliverance. II
would be one Of the most solemn and
purifying lessons that history has
written.
i MS Is what we expect W see Wllilu
the next six or nine months. when the
exhaustion of the Central Empires re-
serves Of man power will render the
enemy unable to maintain his present
ctntinuous fronts or TO defend for long
his indispensable sources Of supply in
tbs East.
Decision on the Somme.
Nothing is doing more to bring about
these results than the fearful struggle
on the low hills above the Somme.
There rest by now many of our best
beloved whose faces it was not given
to us TO see in death. Even the graves
that hold our dearest we shall never
discover quite. nor hardly know when
or how their graves were made. But
we who saw them go out know that bet
ter souls never looked from human eyes
than theirs. Their comrades who are left
will deal we'll with the German army,
whether there is needed little more
or a little less. That work will be
done, and done in such fashion as few
even in America now expect.
The Germans only make our prog
ress slower by throwing more men into
the furnace between the Ancre and the
Somme. This speeds what is the chief
purpose Of the Allies strategy-the
rapid melting down of the enemy's re-
naming masses-and accelerates the
conclusion of the war. German counter
attacks are bound to be so continuous
and heavy that the enemy has already
been deprived in effect of all special
advantage from the defensive.
Henceforth our task will be much the
hardest on the Allies side. The Ger
mans will retreat in the East, will yield
to any enemy, before they accept the
final bitterness Of being beaten by the
British. That we know, but it will
bring our friends sooner to their hon
ors and in the end will not diminish
ours. Wherever we turn our eyes, from
the Somme to Armenia, victory or the
promise of victory is with the Allies.
The price is hard for many mothers
and fathers among us; harder could not
be; but we thank God both for the liv-
ing and the dead.
- - xv~ vvynNy mn mn nnr