The Washington herald., 1917-11-11
Copyright, Underwood Underwood. n. Y.

the troops who are to carry them
out are not up to the work, the plans
cannot be realized. With this tao
teal test, Sc far as 1t has gone, We
have every reason to feel in the high
est degree satisfied. So far we have
not missed a step.
Fun ther, we knew that although
there has been singularly little vicis-
situde OF fortune, We have compelled
the enemy to put forth and have met
his utmost effort. Five divisions have
been identified east of Ypres as just
brought from Russia and from Cham
payne. 1t Is telling evidence of the
strain this defense has imposed. A
stronger defense than that hitherto
offered may be dismissed as wholly
improbable.
I'm a case like this, the German
command is not accustomed to lock
the stable door after the horse has
been stolen, and it is idle to suppose
that we should have been allowed to
advance as far as the outskirts of
Passchendaele and the Houthulst
Wood if any means at the enemys
command could have prevented it.
The means are not at the enemy's
command. and if they are not now,
they never will be.
I'm brief. this tactical test has been
decisive, and that decision Is the de-
cision of the war The fate of the
Germany armies on the West is no
open question. Before the assault
on the Messines Ridge it might have
been so regarded. 1t cannot be so
regarded after the attack of Octo-
Der 3.
And what is the authoritative Ger
man view of the matter? Let US
judge as usual by acts. First of all
there is the distribution of Father
land Party pamphlets among the
German soldiery. The morale of the
German army needs to be reinforced.
The procedure has no other meaning
Why does the morale need to be stiff
fened? Because of the effect of the
repeated shocks it has. undergone
Shocks are not caused by victories.
All the detailed accounts agree that
the morale of the German troops is
patchy. Some fight well; others bad
ly. The morale of an army which is
sinking always takes this form of
rotten spots, which tend to spread. 1t
leaves a force unreliab BILE, for an army
is a chain of linked units and uDities,
and if some of the links be rotten the
chain will break to a certainty. The
'Fatherland' propa aganda is apparent
ly an attempt at cure.
Next there is the official represen-
tation in the German newspapers of
the resistance east of Ypres as
victorious resistance. Seemingly it
is victorious because We do not ac-
complish everything at one bound.
There could not be a grosser military
absurdity, and of course the men
who write bulletins of that kind know
that such stuff is nonsense. The fact
that they write it, and fell constrain-
ed to write it, discloses their real
opinion. They knew that they are
beaten.
The Sofia Conference.
ITO pass on, there is the report
conference of enemy rulers at Sofia.
The military reverses of Germany on
the West, the main and deciding the
ater of war, are so many hammer
blows at the confederacy. Will Ger
mans allies follow Germany all the
way to ruin? 1t is doubtful.
Lastly there are the rumored fur
lilCE pGdCc OllSlS
liberal terms. Why should there be
such offers or rumors of offers If the
military situation is excellent Do
not they arise out of the peril of the
German army on the West, the Ger
man army, and the peril Of the Prus
sianised German Empire it involves?
1t we take the defeat of the Ger
man army as now foregone, these
1o, to-
sistent with each other. On any other
supposition they are inconsistent and
inexplicable. There is a theorem
which fits them all. That theorem is
the truth"
English view of the Flanders CAM
paign. one of the most vivid pictures
of what the British attacks in Flan-
ders mean to the unfortunate German
soldiers crouthing in the mud under
an unprecedented volume of fire has
been written by German correspond
ent, Professor Wegener, of the Col
ogne Gazette. Despite his effort to
put the best face possible on the sit
uation, it is not necessary to read be-
tween the lines to appreciate the hope
lessness with which the enemy must
look forward to new and greater at
tacks in the spring, in which the
American army will play its part.
"It was plain above all,' wrote
Professor Wegener. in describing the
latest attack, that the enemy would
continue to put his hope not In the
moral superiority of his troops, but
in material superiority. The incom-
parable fighting strength of the
German soldier was to be broken. and
must be broken, by a tremendous de-
velopment of mechanical weapons
and the unheard-of accumulation of
guns ammunition. mines. gases.