The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1917-11-22
WHERE VICTORY
SPELLS DEFEAT
ITALIAN GAIN is POLITICAL
FAILURE FOR HUN,
GERMANY IS IN BAD POSITION
whole Country Yearns For Peace.
While Internal Troubles Multi
ply-success In Italy Will Not
Stem the Rising Tide.
(By X. Walter !

(By X. Walter.)
London, Nov. 21-Once more Ger
many has achieved military victory
that is political failure. Even il
Venice is again outraged by Austrian
occupation, there can now be little
rejoicing in Vienna or Berlin. The
purpose of the Germans high COM
mand has failed; Italy will not col
lapse; peace has been brought no
nearer by this supreme effort.
TWO main results of the Italian Of
fensive were clear; it has fused the
union of the Allies and it has LEFT 4
great Teuton army with its back to
the frozen Alps. The Teutons won
a victory, thanks to the demoraliza-
ton of part of the Italian army, but ii,
has left them in a dangerous posi-
ton. They did not set out to con-
quer Italy but to win peace. They
have failed, and they know they have
failed.
Leaning Toward Peace.
The above summary of the situa.
ton is not based on British optim-
ism; it is made after reading a
number of German papers and weigh
ing their evidence of the impression
made by the Italian campaign. The
military experts exult, of course, but
political eyes turn away to look for
greater promise in Russia. On the
brightest day of the advance into 1t.
ally the Berliner Tageblatt is already
more concerned with Lenine's offens-
i've than with that of Won Below.
Can Lenine hold out until agreement
has been. reached? And 1T alludes
to the necessity for ascertaining the
views of distant countries interested
in the war; mentioning Brazil and
Hayti. I'VE can only hope that in
the meantime Kerensky and Korni.
LOFT will not contrive to enter the
winter palace with the assistance of
machine guns" 1t is not too much
to say that the German press is more
stirred by the apparent opening of a
Russian road to peace, than by the
crossing of the Alps to victory. In
Vienna on November 18th there was
a mass meeting of fifty thousand peo-
pie; they met, not to rejoice over the
invasion of Venetia, but to demand
that the Central Powers should rec.
ognize Lenine as the ruler of Russia
and make peace with him.
Italian Victory Is Empty.
The Italian campaign, in fact, hay-
ing failed of it's political purpose is
nothing more than a sortie from a be.
seiged fortress, and a sortie that
neither strengthens the position of
the beseiged armies nor brings relief
to the civilian population The Ger
man people now do not want victory;
they want peace and food. Signif-
cant vital statistics are given by
Leipziger Volkzeitung. In Leipzig
in the month of September there were
four hundred and ninety-eight births
and seven hundred and eleven deaths,
not counting army casualties, where
as in 1914 births exceeded deaths by
siXty-siX per cent. The Breslau
health report is better than this but
gives the information that out of six
hundred and four births one hundred
and fifty-three, or rs per cent, were
illegitimate.
Conditions Today.
Hungry typhus has been spreading
to such an extent that it has called
for official denials of alarming figures
quoted by by rumors. Berlin goes
unwashed for lack of hot water, ow-
ing to the coal shortage; from the
same cause Hamburg newspaper Of
fees close early in the evening for
want of gas; the dyeing industry.
pride of Germany's commerce, is suf-
fering for the same reason that thirty
out of thirty-four Berlin dye works
are to be closed.
Internal Disorders Threaten.
The Italian victory cannot ease the
economic situation, nor does it seem
to have favored political unity any
where except among the Allies. The
growing dispute between Austria and
Hungary and Bohemia daily comes
nearer to the danger point. The APP
pointnent of Hertling as chancellor
has raised a storm among the German
parties which may reach a crisis any
/ day.