New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-10

Allies nave Deeu SuIpllocu ny AoSSo ""-N
should not have surprised a child ten
years old.
The final detection of Russia does not
change the situation. The actual defec-
ton took place many months ago. The
Allied cause has since that time suffered
practically all the evil it could suffer from
such an event. The final evil is compre-
hended in the Italian disaster, and what
ever happens in Russia now is of no ma
terial consequence so far as the war is
concerned.
1t is not true, as many people believe,
that the Germans can Immediately or at
any sufficiently early date draw food and
supplies from Russia, even if there is a
separate peace. Ali transportation and all
labor in Russia have broken down. Not
only have the soldiers quit fighting, but
the working people nave quit working. The
country, despite all of Russia's resources
in wheat, is actually starving. The cry Of
the Bolsheviki for bread is an eloquent
testimony to the present condition of Rus.
STA. Nor is Germany herself in such a
condition that she can rehabilitate the
TRANSFORMATION system of another country.
Her own is breaking down rapidly. She is
not now able to maintain her transporta-
ton in such condition as to supply her own
cities with coal, despite the fact that she
has an inexhaustible supply at her own
mineheads.
The Allies are bound to recognize that
Russia has ceased to be one Of their assets,
and they should very quickly perceive that
they cannot permit 1t to be liability with
out prolonging the war and greatly in
creasing their own burdens. Whether
Russia now makes a separate peace with
Germany or INDUCES in civil war, she is
lost to the Allies as partner and as CO.
laborer. Even the rise of some dictator
would not necessarily or even probably
bring Russia back to the firing line on the
Allied side.
The truth is that in Russia the domestic
situation has triumphed over the foreign.
The Russians have turned their faces tow
ard their own problems. Until they have
reached some sort of solution for these
problems they will not again give either
their attention or their effort to foreign
war. They are more interested now in the
partition Of the real estate of Russia than
in the rescue of Russia's former Polish
provinces. They are more interested in
fighting their own land owners than the
conquering armies of Hindenburg or
Mackensen. They have established Uto-
pia at home which may, and probably will.
melt into a state of anarchy with small de
lay. But neither in Utopia nor in anar-
chy is there reason for hope that Russia
will march again with her allies.
Great Britain, France, the United States
and Italy have been for many months
actually fighting Germany and her allies
without assistance from Russia. This fact
explains the slow British advance In Elan
ders, the temporary French check at the
Aisne, the collapse of Italy on the Isonzo.
All the fruits Of Russian detection have
been harvested by the Germans, save only
that which may come from spirit of ex-
aggeration on the moral side of the recent
events at Petrograd.
Those countries which are really fight
ing Germany possess the men, the money
and the resources to defeat Germany with
out Russian aid. They have no right or
reason henceforth to expect Russian aid.
It is their business to adjust themselves to
this new condition, to put away empty
illusions and vain hopes, to redouble their
own efforts to block German attempt to
increase the extent of Allied losses through
Russian detection by exaggeration and by
propaganda.
Russia has left the firing line for the
rest of the war. There is no chance that
she will return. The material costs of her
detection have already been paid and the
opportunity for Allied victory remains un-
mistakable if the Allies will now face the
facts.
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