Arizona republican., 1917-08-09
The Grindinu Process

We shall know how the is progressing the western front until it Is all over. unless we shall secure somehow happy medium between the of the British and those of the Germans The map does not tell much, so little ground has been re- covered, and, indeed British tell that the map is not expected to tell anything.
 They inform that they steadily winning their objectives; that when offensive is brought to a standstiIl, either by bad weather stubborn resistance the objective has been The German experts the other hand. up the claim that whenever British offensive has been brought to end the British have been repused and their efforts have been defeated The truth must lie somewhere between these two claims.
 It is unreasonable to expect that single British thrust, however powerful and we'll prepared, should push back the Germans for any considerable dis break through their lines at all. In the early days of the fighting on the Somme, little more than year ago. there was talk of breaking through piercing the enemys lines In fact, some of the official reports actually stated that such terprses had been actually carried out. But compe tent experts showed how utterly impossible that would be, and since then we have heard about piercing the lines of the enemy.
 The grinding process" has been resorted to and that brings us back to an opinion expressed by expert at the very beginning of the He pre- dicted that unless it settled by negotiations, it must be settled by the wearing of another of the combaants On of the great number Of who would be employed and with the modern artillery with which they would be equipped there could be no such thing overwhelming the enemy crushing him. That might be done very limited scale on small part of a line, but it could not be followed up There could be flanking of armies or captures of large bodies of
 Tn WAS In the operations of Von Hindenburg in the Mazurian the unskillful Russians Though beaten whenever met by German troops, they crushed. There many of them
 This expert stated that the must be by slaughter, by killing the men of the enemy beyond power to replace them Strategy, of course, must be employed, but it must be the strategy that pro- duces killing and capture. It that kind of strategy that induced the German attack upon Yer dun Verdun itself not worth the lives of a thousand German soldiers. The advantage of its position much less than that of other points on the long line But it at that point that the Germans believed the largest of French troops could be gathered for the slaughter which the Ger mans hoped would be great that France would be shorn utterly of man power.
 The objective of every battle is slaughter or the securing Of position from which later a greater slaughter of the enemy may be carried on Territory lost gained counts but little. Thus the driving Of the Germans out of France and Belgium will be
 secondary matter if it should be accomplished and it cannot be accomplished the British now admit, except by the grinding process Of the grinding once it has attained stage when it begins be felt by the enemy will with increasing rapldty the end It has not yet however, reached a which 1t discerned which side is being the severely ground.