The Green Forest tribune., 1917-12-07
YOUNGER. LEADERS
 FOR MORE ACTION
"sINGlE FRONT, SINGLE ARMY, SINGLE NATION" PROGRAM
 URGED BY AMERICANS.
SEA CAMPAIGN IS LIKELY
May Be Determined on by Great Coun- cil In ParIs-Austran Fleet Could Be Driven From Pola and De- stroyed.
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

Washington that the war strategy board of three generals of the allied forces which recently has been app pointed will be augmented quickly by the naming of an American soldier to make a quartette of what today Is trio.
 There has been a tendency notice able in Washington to confuse the strategy board with the great council which Is now opening it's sessions at the French capital, the council at which Col E. NJ. House Is the chief civilian American representative. The council, of course, as President Wilson already has said, will consider means 'as to how the war Is to be won." and this means that it in a large sense will be military in its nature. The strategic board, as many call 1t, of three ranking officers of the arSlies of the allies may form a plan of their own for an all embracing campaign or they may seek simply to put into effect the plan which the council outlines, provided of course military authority sanctions 1t.
 Recently Painleve at luncheon giv- en to David Lloyd George outlined a program In these words-"A single front, single army. a single nation"
 Younger Men Will Rule.
 The then French premier may have known It or he may not have known 1t, but in epitOmiZing this program of war he was but echOing words spoken time after time in the recent past by American army officers of high rank. The military end of the war depart ment probably will have its way Youth in the army must be served as 1t is served elsewhere and so 1t can be talk en for granted almost that the old men who are for prolonged counsel will be overcome by the young men who are for short counsel and short war.
 Long ago the young American naval officers urged in such ways as they could that a sea campaign in connec- ton with the British fleet be under taken. Younger army officers have felt from the very beginning that war should be declared on the allies of Ger many, and 1t Is inconceivable that their view has not been known to their su- perior military and civilian officers. There Is a growing feeling here today in military and naval circles that fol- lowing the conference in France some body. or several somebody's in fact, will be told to strike hard.
 German Fleet May Strike.
 Constantly in Washington one hears that thus far Germany had been sue cessful on land but that the allies have been overwhelmingly successful on the sea. It is apparent that a sea victory for the Germans would do them more good than all the land victories which they could pile up. A sea vic tory would open the way to supplies of all kinds to the control of the seas. and probably to an actual invasion or an attempted invasion of England. Military opinion here therefore holds that so far aS vital successes are con- cerned. the allies are better off than the Germans, but the belief Is that some time or other the German fleet may strike.
 There is an Austrian fleet shut up in Pola. There are means if properly used which would result in driving this fleet out. Some of the naval strate- gists believe that the first thing to be done is to destroy every ship which the Austrians have and they say that with France, Italy, Great Britain and Amer lea in this fight there ought to be ships enough to put the Austrian fleet out of commission while still having reserve supply enough to keep the German ships bottled up until the time shall come to go in and smash them in the bottle.
 New Army Never Surpassed.
 Letters which come to me from men whom I have known since school days on that Hudson river plateau which is shadowed by Fort Putnam and Old Crow Nest mountain contain no military secrets, but they disclose perhaps better than anything else can the real spirit of the service as it Is constituted today, the spirit which If not maintained will make for defeat.
 The letters are from general officers commanding camps and cantonments of the American army in divers places and they tell the most convincing sto. res of the morale and the general ex cellence of health and spirit of the new armies of the republic.
 Take the letters together and theil contents represent conditions in camps In which Americans from every sec tion are quartered. It would seen that the spirit of the soldiers of the South, the West, the East and tho North is one. The high desire of prop CT service on the part of drafted meI is one of the most satisfactory of tho | findings. Some men did not expect real heart service from some of the | drafted ones.
 is Real American Army. From the letters of the commanding | officers one gets no word of self praise nor of self congratulation. Common 
 Woes of the RIch