New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-21


fered very heavy losses with no great
gains when they tried to continue their
attack-to stretch" their success-wlth-
out further adequate artillery prepare
ton. At Verdun the Germans scored very
heavily in the first five days at relatively
moderate cost, and their subsequent gains
were purchased at a frightful expense
and were inconsiderable.
1t is one of the most hopeful signs of
the war that the British have not made a
similar mistake before Arras, and having
taken the maximum of possible profit from
their original attack have halted, consoli-
dated their position and permitted the
Germans to expend thousands Of lives in
fruitless counter-attacks. We shall have,
some time in the next week or ten days,
another British blow At that time we
shall probably see the French pause on
the ground that they have gained, methodi-
cally and deliberately consolidate their
positions, bring up their artillery and pre-
pare for new blow.
The simple question that we have to
face now is whether the Germans can long
endure the constant pounding which is to
be their portion this year. In ten days they
have lost nearly thirty-fve thousand pris-
oners and more than three hundred guns.
They have been driven from some of the
strongest positions on their front and they
have been unable, despite desperate efforts,
to regain any of the lost territory. We
have the testimony of figures as well as of
eyewitnesses to show an unmistakable
lowering of the German morale. The con-
viction of the German soldier that the Ger
man machine was invincible, that his gen.
erals could not make mistakes, and that
his enemy was beneath contempt-these
ideas have passed away.
For the moment the question of where
a battle takes place is of lesser interest.
We are seeing the final test of endurance.
1t may be long test or a short test, as
German morale yields quickly or slowly to
superior numbers and guns. But for the
present our measure of Allied progress
must be primarily the number of guns
captured, and, secondly, the number of
men captured. The surrender of more
than two hundred guns at Arras, many of
them large pieces, was disaster the like
Of which no German army has suffered
since the Napoleonic times. 1t demon
strates a breakdown in morale and in
organization which, however local it may
prove to be, would have seemed incredible
year ago and beyond conception before
the Battle of the Marine.
At the end of the present campaign the
Germans may not yet be out of France.
At the close of the Battle of the Somme
they still chung to most of their positions,
having yielded only an inconsiderable area.
But the decision of the Somme was demon
strated in their subsequent retreat. Every
possible effort the Germans can make they
will make to hold on until fall, with the
purpose of arranging another peace cam
paign. 1t may be that the fruits of the
present offensive will not be gathered until
next spring, although those already gath
cred exceed the fruits of six months of
fighting at the Somme last year. We are
going to have periods of activity, periods
of pause. 1t is unlikely that we shall see
again Immediately any such sweeping
progress as has been made in the last ten
days. The positions which the Germans
are now being driven into may hold for
many weeks. But it is well once for all
at the beginning of this great summer
campaign to bear in mind that the result
is not to be measured by ground captured;
that the main Allied purpose is not to
pierce the German lines; but that the Allies
are applying the Grant method, which won
the Civil War for the North. Under that
treatment the Army of Northern Virginia,
while it was still indicated, was worn to
"frazzle." While the North still looked
despondently at the lines before Richmond
lines recalling the present trenches-the
victory had in fact been won and the col
lapse was on the point of taking place.
No man can say whether modern Ger
many will endure defeat as the French
PaDuhl;c endurod II for tho loncr months