Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1917-11-22
HOW LONG WILL GERMANY HOLD

4 Drant III ms great campaign from
the Rapidan to Petersburg, did not
realize any one of his immediate OBJ
jectives. Lee met him and blocked him.
but Lees army in the contest was worn
ito frazel" Grant could replace his
losses. Lee could not.
More than this, as the contest con-
tinued and temporary checks to Grant
did not stop him, the Southern army
slowly but surely learned the fatal
truth that the war was lost. 1t was an
army already beaten which Grant faced
the following spring and disposed of in
few days. Now the German army in
Flanders is learning the same lesson.
1t knows its own inferiority in numbers,
in material. in guns and in munitions.
1t has been losing ground steadily for
more than four months. 1t has lost all
the high ground it held in June.
The mission of the German army as
explained to it by its commanders is to
hold until the submarine saves the day
1t was asked to hold three months; it
has held six and the submarine has not
wen and is not winning the war. Even
Tirpitz, who set limit as early as May
of this year, now asserts that the time
cannot be fixed for the submarine tri-
umph. The German soldier knows his
Disadvantages, he knows that another
campaign is inevitable, and he also
knows that another campaign will mean
new period of pounding, of defeat.
like the Somme and the present Ypres
struggle.
Since the year opened the British
have taken GO, 600 prisoners and lost less
than 20, 600 something like $1,000 in
point of fact. They have taken 1872
cannon, many of them heavy pieces,
and they have not lost one. They have
taken the Vimy Ridge. Hill No 70, the
Paschendaele Ridge; they have adj
vanced wherever they have attacked.
end their advances are beginning to
have serious threat to German posi-
tons from the Mouse to the Lys. The
result is simple; the British army feels
itself superior; the German army is
conscious not only of its present infer
iority but of its rapidly declining
strength.
At the moment German strategy isi
comprehended IN grim resolve to hoIA
on until the weather ends this years
campaign; and the end is already ia
sight. Then will begin the most de-
termined peace offensive of the war.
If the Germans should be compelled to
make their great retreat to the Ant |
werp- Brussels Namur line this year,
then the confession of defeat would be
so plain that they would find little hear
ing for a peace proposal. 1t would be
accepted as one more sign of conscious
ness of defeat. If they are to have a
case for peace this winter, peace with
out large concessions, they must hold
their lines for the rest of the campaign.
This they may be able to do, because
the weather is already getting bad and
we may see little more attacking before
the close of operations. But, in my
judgment, if the Germans fail in their
peace maneuvers this winter, they will
in the spring be forced to make another
retreat like that of this year, but very
much more considerable. If they can
postpone retirement until spring they
will have all winter to perfect their
new line, already fortified, and to dew
estate the country they mean to leave
as they did the Noyon salient last winter.
But when the retreat is made the
whole course of the war will change.
Unless all signs fail the next attack
will not be made in Belgium; it will be
made from the Lorraine front, where
the firing-li line is now on the frontier
and short push will carry the Allies
into German territory. Once the Ger
mans have been turned out of Northern
France, | believe the war will go east
to the gap between the Vosges and Yer
dun. Then the invasion Of Germany