Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-06-03

submarine menace 10 the food sup
plies was not taken seriously until
this year. Measures to put into culti-
vation meadows and game preserves
have only recently been taken, and
the recruiting of a large part of the
able bodied farming population makes
the success of these belated efforts
extremely problematical. Until the
harvest of 1918, Great Britain Will be
entirely dependent upon shipping for
three-quarters of her food The Ger
man hope Is that the pinch will begin
to be felt so keeuly this summer that
ships must be diverted from the muni-
tion and transport services to bring
food for these islands. and To the cN-
tent To which this is necessary the
operations In France and in other
thcaters of war will suffer. while II is
not impossible, in the absence of inn
mediate and whole hearted efforts by
the United States to raise more food
I as well as build more ships that even
, more disastrous results than this may
| he attained by the submarines
Conditions Are Reversed.
! II was said early in the war that the
struggle was essentially "A combat be
tween an elephant and a whale Some
months ago a wit pointed out that the
whale was now fighting on land the
elephant at sea. II would be possible
today To carry the paradox still further
and to say that the whale is winning
| on his unaCcuStomcd element, and 50
/ is the elephant
| II is the first business Of the United
States TO deal with the most pressing
| danger, and to make certain that the
! elephant does not triumph And this
/ for no reasons of sentiment. lr Anglo
Saxon solidarity. or hands ds-across-the-
sea "reminiscences, but hcacusa the de
( feat of Great Britain would involve
I utter ruin of the whole entente and
most certainly of the United States as
well 1t is possible to conceive any
Iothcr member OF the anti-German Goa
| ition temporarily beaten to the
ground without Germany succeeding
! In couquorinE the world. but If II is
now given to the United States to de-
eide the war 10y throwing an her re-
! Islurces into the scale. it no less re
mains true th"t the British navy is the
Suardian of the liberties of us all.
/ America would be just as helpless If
! the British navy We're starved into
| submission as # il were sent to the
I bottom of the sea.
! The startegy of the allied armies
! AlllN var - N'I N''dl hbNll lllt 'ttI MA II
| troops by cclscless and r,la1 loss Of
! iensives pushed AS violently as posi-
! BILE We're il possible to break thru
! the German lines and destroy the
Iencmy's armies as some optimists
nave believed possible. the war could
be won promptly. and the attrition
! warfare of .' sIbW i'inH defeated
But it is not possible and professional
! optiuists do their cause a very poor
service WREN they circulate rosy ac-
counts which must tend to encourage
n belief in the United States th.t thn
Germans cannot hold out beyond this
autumn ani that the presence of
great American forces in Europe will
not be necessary
The Question of Numbers.
The supreme comm1nd yesterday
permitted Colonel Repington. the mill
tary expert Of the London Times, to
launouncc that there are at present
5000 coo German soldiers not count
iig Austrians, Bulgars or Turks. OF
these 100000 are on the fighting
fronts. 5OO.0cO on the lines of COM
m".ication in conquered tcr'iu ry and
LOO coo in the dcpOts of the interior
of Germany II is true that the
"Combing OUT process in German in
dustry can apparently go no further
but there are 500. 600 boys who reach
military age every year. Not only are
the German armies G.000.0O0 strong
bIt Trey arc stronger today than ever
before.
tch ado has been made in the
press bec2use $4,000 German prisoners
were captured in the great French and
British offensive in France last month
In these battles perhaps 200 600 Ger
w2ns were put out Of action. Since
the close of the battle of the SommC
last winter, more than two hundred
thousand German boys have grown
from children in.D soldiers. 1t is such
figures as these that Americans should
ponder, not lyrical outbursts about