New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-01


tho improvement OF materieL
During this year the British and French
have acquired heavy artillery. In 1915 they
were wofully short IN this arm. Not ony
have they now gotten artillery and amnuni.
ton 10 match the German supplies, but they
have built and manned and are running the
plants that are rapidly turning the present
equality into a great superiority in gun
power, which il needs no extraordinsry
vision 10 see will break loose in the spring
Artillery Output and Munitions
To-day the Germans no longer match tds
Allied gun power either AZ Verdun or on the
Somme How will il be when the sccuuuat-
ing Allied surplus masses Ike quantities ~
heavy artillery also at such points ss Lille.
in the Champagne and around Biamonf2
The captured German dispatch showing that
the German output Of heavy guns can No
longer repair the wastags is supplemented
BY Won Hindenburg's pronunciamento that
the German munition workers are 20 under
fed that they no longer turn out ammunition
in adequate quantities Is 10 not confes-
sion Of defeat at least in the war 81 ma
chires? The Allies show steady and rapid
increase in both guns and ammunition.
Nor is this all. The lack Of cotton for
and oil is telling fearfully on the German
supplies Of ammunition. Even the threat or
starvation, beginning 70 be felt in German
has had no real relief from the capture o. q
few million bushels Of Rumanisn grain aD-
parently now stored as reserve FOR The
German armies.
Has not 1916 shown a steady increase in
Allied power and a steady attriton Of leu
tonic power? II 50. is it not the working
out Of the grand strategy OF the Alliss,.
Loss OF Moral
Lastly, there Is the German loss In qual-
ity Of troops and moral We cannot &C
cept the figures Of admitted Tsutonic loss
in killed and wounded, with the known fig
ures as to prisoners taken az the same time
without believing that there has been an
unusual amount Of surrendering. Such AZ
excuse is as bad as the charge Undue SUI
render betokens a loss Of resistance and
moral that is as serious as the loss %
troops enough 70 account for the number Of
prisoners under normal conditions.
What Germany has lost the last two year.
has been heavy percentages Of her be
troops. Has she any way 20 replace them
save by raw levies Of boys, and by calling
70 the colors the men who were already
too old two and half years ago, and the
rejected Of military age?
Trenches Not TmpregnabIe
Have not the battlss on the somme de-
mon strated that the trenches are not an ir-
surmountable obstacle? Is 10 not the old
shifting combat between amor and the gun
Double the Allied artillery in the spring
and, while the first half destroys the front
German trenches, viii not the second haf
be made ready 10 push forward instantly 20
where 10 can rapidly take up the next be.t
Of territory, instead of wasting ten days
in moving forward the heavy guns for the
next artillery attack? How will this affect
the defence Of the trench line? Is 10 not
clear that the additional heavy artillery s
rapidly coming?
All in all, is not the balance sheet Of the
year as empowering hidden balance
against Germany to-day as waa growing
against the South all through the dreary
and hopeless months from October, 1858, 60
December, 1854?
Are not the conditions IN Germany TO-DAY
reaching the position that the battle Of A
lanta disclosed 70 Sherman's eyes, that all
that was within had been drafted 20 tho
circumference, and that when the outer bne
should be once broken the reserves no
longer existed to fight arm that had
won through
Is not this the secret Of the desperate
German efforts 20 get peace now? Does the
German staff not see that after another
year Of like losses, Prussian militarsm viii
be on the verge OF being spent and that
peace car then be made with A disregard Of
the wishes Of the Prussian Junker not nov
possible? Can you otherwise account for the
anxiety Of the Kaiser's ministers 20 secure
P peace conference in the face Of the scald-
ing truth Of Lloyd Georges great speech
and their own claims Of victory2 Real vic.
tors are not used 50 to move. May moi
those OF who rre apt 90 despond well
think Of 1854 and ponder Clougirs verse ON
the incoming tide;
While the tired waves vaiuiy breaking
Seem here no painful finch to gain.
Far back t1ro' creeks and inlets making e
Comes silent flowing in the main
SELDOM BACON
New York Dec %, 1918.