New-York tribune., 1917-12-16
FIRST ARTICLE

German officers at TINS moment occupy 'uS
Florio Palace Of Udine, where few weeks
ago we all-Italan officers and British and
American delegates on a mission speeiale
sat at our coffee American, who have
rot heard the first faint reverberation OF
war, will remember in this hour Of need
that Italians have died by the hundred
thousand and still 90 forward. In one
brief motor ride between PLAYA and Canale
| saw the fourteen bridges they had con-
etructed by night, under machine gun fire.
Just three weeks before our visit, little
above Canae they blinded with search
lights the Austrian machine gunners, hidden
under a rock on the hill opposite They
strung wire cable, ran out pontoon boats
and slid the bridge into place that carried
the assault over the swift, shallow green
river. Such actions are a permanent pos
session of the race, and no reverse can rob
them of a final gain.
Road in Twenty Days
In twenty days, up from Canale, they
built seven-kilometre road, with diff
ference in level of one thousand feet.
On August 21 they arrived at the Isonzo.
On the morning of August % the bridge
they built was carrying guns OF 3O5 eallbre.
Every ten metres, up and down the nil
roads. their telegraph wire carried a eeilu-
loid case, stating the distance between points
Of central" call. If the wire was broken
the case showed what points must be put
into connection again. Such ingenuity is
not lost TO the national mind by a sudden
barrage Of enemy fire.
The Italians as a race, were city dwellers
in the plain. And in few months they
had devised vast organization Of appliances
Tor the land Of sky. | saw what had been a
wilderness a fortnight before turned into q
tented city of supplies and organization
Rocks. bouehs, mud-colored tents, and men
IN grigioverde (cray-green) all blended to-
cether with the fundamental earth color
Carso, that Libyan desert, with It's "dolina'
cups of green verdure, fed by rain water
held by substratum of rock-was peopled
by almost invisible men, working IN
system Of protective coloration.
And nothing was drab in the temperament
that built the universal camouAage, but all
the work ard Whiting were carried through
by men aler. and yiyacious. An innocent. gay
people. whose word and gesture and act are
expressive, turned to the monstrous job Of
war. They have heaped St. Marks with sand
bags. with sacks for the Twelve Apostles.
4 Lone-Wolf Fight
All the hearty effort Of these millions Of
persons. changing the natural course Of
their life in obedience to the call Of sac
rifce, has been maintained on mechanical
equipment scaatier than that Of the Western
Allies. The Italians have always been short
Of big guns. short of six-inch guns, and
short Of ammunition. With no coal and
little iron, they have had to wage war Of
coal and iron. Now they are paying The
price in territory and blood. II Italy has
seemed to be waging lone-woh fight let
US remember that her national pride is as
sensitive as our own. She has phrase,
"LTtaiia fara da Sc" "I-ay stands on her
own two feet
What has happened in Italy is that good
ideas Of national purpose and unity, Of
social progress for all the people, have been
persistently at work, not only since the