New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-18


to increase.
Think of the lies that the German army
has believed and then found out. Inc
Verdun campaign was TO bring peace after
one more effort. The British could never
get ready to fight, never would fight IN
great numbers. The submarine warfare
would win the desired peace in three
months after February of this year, II the
army could hold that long. The collapse
Of Russia would bring peace; one more
effort was all that was required. To-day
their masters are bankrupt of promises
and the German soldiers have still to en-
dure not the old pressure, but a new press
ure ten times as terrible.
The submarine campaign has failed like
the Verdun thrust; it has not brought VIC
tory this wear, and it cannot bring peace
before the close of another year Of fight
INC Britain has arrived and the British
armies are fighting onward, while behind
these armies American forces are gather
ing and the French are still holding fast
The German sailors have begun to resist
the draft to serve in the submarine; the
underwater campaign is breaking down at
home as we'll as at sea.
One by one all the German hopes and
forecasts are going glimmering, and still
the awful pounding continues. The legend
If Prussian invincibility Is not now cher
isbed bv the troops who have lost the
Passchendaele Ridge or the Vimy Heights
They know. An army which expected to
oct TO Paris in six weeks finds itself after
three years being pounded out of Flanders
without hope Of victory in the field; 1t
labors under no delusion as to the condi-
ton of its foe; 1t knows that the subma-
rine blockade has not prevented the arrl-
val Of British ammunition.
We are seeing the slow but sure decay
Of one Of the great military machines OF
human history, but the very greatness OF
its power, Of its fame, blinds us now to
the truth Of its present condition, just as
the Napoleonic legend long took in
Europe accustomed to Napoleonic victories
won by the veterans of the Revolution,
even when Napoleon was facing veteran
troops with ill-trained youths, after his
great Ieutenants and best soldiers had
perished in the victories between Marengo
and Moscow. When there was next TO
nothing left Of the army of Northern Vir-
ginia but its magnificent reputation, 1t
still seemed invincible to the doubters in
the North.
The greatest single service of the Brit
ish at Ypres is the demonstration they are
giving the world Of the decline Of German
morale and German might We are still
under the shadow of our old fears and of
our apprehensions, which were just three
years ago, two years ago, but now are
childish. At its best the German army
failed at the Marine and at Verdun; while
it was still strong it lost at the Somme.
This year it has lost every considerable
engagement in the West and has been un-
able to attempt any major operation in
the East.
Third Ypres in its largest meaning is a
demonstration of the rapid decline of Ger
man military strength; it is the clear
proof that Germany has lost the war; it
is the reasonable assurance that the next
campaign will bring triumphs not to be
measured by yards or by rods. 1t is one
Of the decisive battles of the war, just as
the series of struggles between the Rapi-
dan and the James in 1864 were the sure
forerunners Of Confederate collapse. This
IS what Third "Wipers" means. Only the
purposefully blind and the congenitally
weak-spirited will mistake the fact. 1--WE
have Them" Petain's soldiers said after
the first days of Verdun. In their turn
Haig's troops can take up this cry.
The School Strikes
Some genuine discomfort with new and
strange school system can doubtless be
found in the school strikes of the last few