Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-09-26
NO ROYAL ROAD TO VICTORY

At a meeting the other evening General Leonard
Wood said that it is utter foolshness to suppose that
the war can be won in the air or with chemical devices.
The war can be won in but one way, he said, and that
is with men and by sacrifice.
General Woods remarks were probably not needed
for the enlightenment of military men, for those men
know what the facts are and what the possibilities are.
But the generals statement was timely as addressed to
a large body of non-military people who have seemingly
entertained the belief that now that the United States
is In the war the whole thing is to be ended tnstanter
by means of some clever device which is to be the result
Of American inventiveness, and that this is to be done
without risk orsloss to ourselves. General Wood speaks
as q practical soldier on the job, and what he says may,
perhaps, have the effect of bringing down to earth, at
least a few people who have been floating about in the
clouds of their own fancies.
There is no end to the suggestions for patent meth
DDS of winning an easy and bloodless victory over the
Germans. Great fleets of submarines were to be con-
structed which, by their very numbers, would smother
the German craft in their own element. Mosquito fleets
composed of everything from destroyers to canoes were
to perform a like service. Airplanes by the hundred
thousand were to fly over Germany and at one swoop
destroy everything in uniform in the country. Wierd
chemical contraptions were to be employed for the pur-
pose of blowing up the whole country at one instant.
These and a lot of other things have been gravely sug-
gested. We may as well forget them all.
The war has been in progress for more than three
years. Some new methods of fighting have been evolved.
But the changes have beenaevolutions developed out of
actual experience on the field. The best brains in Eu-
rope have been engaged on the problem of devising
means which would outwit the opposition. We have as
sumed complacently that we have better brains in Amer
lea than they have in Europe. 1t may be so. But that
superiority, if it exists, is not SO great as to overba1ance
three years experience in actual field work. The fact is
that the Europeans know more of the ms and outs of
war than we do, and the men who are to be responsible
for the conduct and the fate Of our soldiers understand
that fact, and, acting on that understanding, are now
studying the situation with the officers of our allies as
tutors.
1t will be strange if America does not contribute to
the success Of the cause something Of the fruits Of her
invenuyeness and resourcefulness. But the great con-
tribution of this nation will be her contribution of men
and material to reinforce the men who have now been
lighting our fight for three years and who, there is every
reason to believe. have developed substantially, the meth
obs upon which the war must be fought to the end.
These, and not. new devices, will be our chief physical,
contribution, and If, with them, we can communicate to
our friends and partners across the seas something of
the inspiration which will flow from American unity in
devotion to the ideals which alone can give vitality to a
effective one.