Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-09-18
NEW VISION OF ITALIAN BATTLE
FRONT

To the Edtor Of the ErcHiRo Lcdgcr
Sir-When we read of the two pillars
placed by Hercules at the western end of
the Mediterranean as marking the furthest
limit Of human conquest of the earth. our
mind conjures up the vision of the Strait
Of Gibraltar and the two lofty mountains
donlinecring it on each side And yet there
are two pillars, much more formidable ana
of which only recently the world has be-
gun TO hear, placed by some northern
Hercules, unknown to mythology, as the
furthcst limit of the southern conquest of
the north; two pillars which were never
taken by an army. as Gibraltar was sue
ccssfully stormed by the Moors; two pillars
between and under which no invader ever
passed from west to east, unless the enemy'S $
forces Had previously been totally defeated
i'm other fields or had through the cor.
ruptive influence OF gold. abandoned those
impreEnablo positions dominating peaks and
slopes, valleys and plains, rivers and for
cSts, roads and bridges.
These two Gibraltars Of the east are found
in the Julian Alps, the victorious battlefield
of the Italians against the Austriaus. one.
north of Gorizia. commands the way to
LaibaCh and Vienna; the other. south of
that city, blocks the passage to Trieste
and Poa. The first is called Tolmino; the
latter bears the soft name of Hcrmada
Between these two Gibraltars is the Carso
plateau, barren, rocky, dcsolate success
sion OF fat-topped heights, a od.forsaken
region, without trees, without grass. with
out water, without shelter but with num-
bcrless caves created by nature. as though
provided for, "A population of cave dwellcrs
and of which the AuStrans have taken
the greatest advantage they could by turn
ing them into formidable trenches unex-
IN nd Nfi,t IA,
Of penetration and we'll supplied with food
water, arms and ammunitiOnS Of all sorts
for a stubborn stand against tho progress
of the Italians
In the whole history of the world there
is no record that those titanic pillars have
ever failed to stem the tide of the in
Naqers from the south or from the west
When moving to the conquest of lllyria
the Romans went around them without at
tempting TO seize them, and dared pass
under those natural fortrcsses only when
they had gained them by treaty or treach-
cry and garrisoned them with their own
troops. Even Venice, in tho haicyon days
of her world power, when she dared resist
both the Byzantine and the German En-.
perors, when threatened by invasion from
the northeast threat at all times impend-
ing upon her, never dreamed of rectifylng
her boundary in that direction by the con
quest of arms, knowing how futile her
efforts would have been. and preferred TO
inilct injuries to the political power of her
antagonists by extending her terra frma
dominons toward the south and the west
True 1t is, in 1877 Napoleon conquered
TTolmino and opened his way to Laibach
and Vienna, but he was then opposed by
a small army, hardly a match for his own
troops congeries of heterogeneous multi
tudes from all the lands occupied by the
Harsburgs, badly organized, equpped
worse asininically commanded and whose
main strength had been diverted to the
French boundary on the Rhine The ex-
plot of Murat. in the early spring of 1909
is hardly worth mentioning, as, In taking
his 80, 900 troops--most of them crack regi
ments of cayalry-from the fields of North
Italy to his victorious and imperial brother
in-law under the walls Of Vienna, he passed
through country virtually. If not actually
under French domination, with Tolmino dis
mantled and ungarrisoned -
The daring feat OF Columbus In the west
not only meant the discovery and the CON
quest of New World but also the upsottino
of the ideas of the Old World. the broaden,
ing of the human minds horizon ana nev
conception in all fields of human endeayor
political social economical Cadorna's ev'
ploits in the east will not only give baci,
TO Old Mother Italy her long lost cbiIdran
and the stolen Jewels of her noble crou,n
but will be instrumental in crushing tbs
old ideas of caste divisions, despotism ana
militarsm and open to the oppressed pon,.
lation of central Europe the way to tbe
sublime ideal OF democracy. u y ~
DIR. ALBERT CNBoNAgClrI
Philadelphia. eept>pnber 17;s,. A.
&I/ U'