The Washington herald., 1917-04-18
How the Editors Are Viewing
America and the World War

~ any rate all lines OF partisanship
should be wiped out. temporarily, at
least; all personal prejudices should be
obliterated; II is only the nation and the
cause In which It is enlisted that must be
considered now. Should the President
issue such summons, the response
would without doubt. be prompt and
hearty.
Some who, politically speaking, have
been as far from the President as the
North Pole is from the South, have not
waited for an invitation, but, impelled by
patriotic fervor. have anticipated Il. Col
Theodore Roosevelt is one of these. He
oners to raise and TO lead a division OF
volunteers for oversee service No per-
son informed with regard to his popular
ity and influence will question his ability
to raise as well as to command such a
force. II given the authorization and the
commission necessary, volunteers would
come streaming toward his headquarters
from every point of the compass. His d.
vision could not hold them ALL
Why should he not be so authorized and
commissioned? Who could be better en-
titled to head the first expedition to
France, or, perhaps, TO Belgium or Ger
many, than one who has held the rank
OF commander-in-chief OF the army and
navy of the United States? Whose exam
pie, In person and following, would do
and stimulating enlistment? -
The Advance of the Allies.
New York Tmes)
If the purpose of the strategic re-
treat Of the Germans from the Noyon
angle was to delay an expected attack
by the allies in the west, as we have
been so confidently assured by Berlin
military critics, the failure of that STRAIT
-
day, when the French armies along the
Aisne on front of twenty-five miles
added q swift and telling blow to the
steady pounding of the British on the
line from Lens to St Quentin. In one
day the French took more than 10000 Ger
man prisoners, gained possession of first
line positions over a wide front south of
Laon, and OF second line defenses to the
south and east OF that pillar of the IA
nous HindenburE line. The allies coun-
tries will be further cheered by the news
that the British in the great battle OF
Arras have taken 1900 prisoners and 1874
guns since April O.
The Germans did not expect to have
to give up the positions the British and
French have taken; they counted too
much on the delaying power of the
strategic retreat" which Is now seen
to have delayed Haig and Niville not at
AiAC oIiOhk pbslNlOHS lnCy
been preparing for months and even
years to defend they are giving up, and
they must now try TO stand on new posi-
tions, less advantageous in themselves
and assumed with little preparation.
Whatever else this time may be. Il Is no
time to undertake a great attack on Rus
sia with the design of marching on Pc
trograd and exciting a rebellion. Ger
many is having all she can attend to in
hnldinr haF WaHfarn line nd he fa nf
holding II.
Three DemocracIes In Council.
New York WORLDLY
The coming of Arthur j. BaIfour. Brit
ish Secretary OF State for Foreign Affairs
as one of the commissioners appointed by
Great Britain to confer here with rep
France as to war policies, shows the Inn
portauce that the British government at
taches to American cooperation
Mr.. Balfour Is more than Foreign Sec
retary. In his sixty-ninth year, he has
been a member of Parliament since 1870
In that body he was for ten years leader
of the Unionist Party, during which time
he was conspicuously I'm legislation of
great Importance. For three and one-half
years after Lord SalIsburys retirement
he was Prime Minister. In the present
Lloyd George Coalition Cabinet he sue
ceeded Sir Edward Grey as Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. No living Eng
lishman has a wider experience in gov
ernment
With such a man heading the British
commission, to be Joined soon by former
Premier Viviani and Marshal Joffre of
France. the American people must see
that In making common cause with the
allies they are to be welcomed in a way
befitting their purpose and their power.
In the forthcoming conferences the
United States, Great Britain and France
will be in a council of war for the first
time. Momentous results will follow