The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-30
Long, Long War-DOn't Be-
Iieve Anything to Contrary.
Drain of Human Life VIII De-
eide for the VictOrs.
MANY DRAFTS ARE COMING
Calls Until Last Able-BOdied Is
Able To Carry a Gun.
Burden of Struggle Will Fall
Upon the United States.

1--WE have the greatest gov
ernment the world has ever
known. We must defend it
but we cannot defend it with
hot air and oratOry. We must
defend it with the men who
live under it and the men who
make it-defend it with our
very bodies.
This was the keynote of a most en-
thusiastic but bitterly businesslike
address given to 400 Topeka business
men at the Chamber of Commerce by
Mi Gen. Leonard Wood, commander
of Camp Funston. this noon.
Driving home his most salient
points with a military punch, remov-
ing all camoUflage or figures of
sDeech and warning in intimate and
stee1-chilled terms the lukewarm peo-
ple of the cOntented west, General
Wood spread his shrapnel truths in
most convincing style.
1t was the most enlishtening speech
on war conditions, war methods, war
results and war necessities ever heard
by a Topeka audience. Not once did
General Wood hoist the flag in his de-
scription of American needs and emer-
not an expression was wasted.
1t is a war of slaughter; a war of
death and a war of human sacrifice.
That is the present struggle as pic
tured by General Wood.
TT is a war of time" he declared,
"and will not end by Christmas. in a
year nor in a short time. 1t will last
until the drain of human life can no
longer be borne by the warning ma
tions and the victors will be those
81,
France BIcd White.
The United States is hardly in the
struggle. France has STAYED off the
enemy until England could get her
forces together, trained and transport
ed to the field of battle. Now she is
bled white, with only a few hundreds
of thousand men to offer in the war.
ing the German demons until the
United States can get into the field.
Now the burden of the war will
fall upon the United States The
country is slow in getting into the
struggle and her part will be the
drop in the ocean of war. There will
be another draft and another, and
another until the last able bodied man
in the country is bearing a gun.
L. S. Not Yet Ready.
I'VE are not yet ready for the
fight. The military camps show it.
Equipment and training have only
started for the millions of men that
are soon to enter the ranks.
The war is an intricate art. No
longer are enemies satisfied with
shutting down supplies and transport
service. The limit now is the sky. The
very air in which the soldiers are
forced to fight is poisoned. The water
which they drink is contaminated.
There is no limit to the measures that
will he used in the fight.
Germany is far from whipped" he
declared. ''They have all the military
advantages in the conflict. They have
the inner lines. in military language,
which means that they form the very
nucleus of the warning district. While
other nations are forced to transport
men, munitions and food around the
edge of the inner circle. Germany can
supply her army by cutting thru the
district.
Germany Can Fight for Years.
ION the eastern front, where the
Italians have recently suffered losses.
Germany is gaining. 1t is part of
her dream of conquest. to open a
German territory around the Persian
gulf on the western front Germany
has suffered great losses but there
should be no delusions about the
losses. Germany is still fighting and
can still fight for years to come.
The German soldier is a unique
machine. He is not to be underesti-
mated. He is organized into a mas
sive whole and competent to fight un-
I'll the last of the army is destroyed.
The German army is the best machine
that the sun ever looked on.
THE submarine is the greatest men