New Britain herald., 1918-06-08
Henry CLens Weekly Letter
Especial to the Herald)

Especial to the Herald)
 New York, June S.-The second
 leap of the great German rush on the western front has ended. Tn a few short weeks the enemy has recovered territory that required the Allies some time to win. This it must be acknowledged was accomplished by superior force. But what is the net result? The three prOba ble objec- tlVes of the German army-division or the French and British crushing either army. or taking Paris-have
 all completely failed, and the position of the German forces today is less se-
 cure than when the drive began. What the next move will be is not yet
 dtvulged, and in the interim the ene-
 my will be fully occupied consolidat- ing his lines, bringing up big guns. supplies. etc., and improving trans portation facilities. Possibly the Hull following these successes will be util- ized for fresh peace talk; but all such camouf1age is useless; because Ger many will not be likely at present to offer terms satisfa ctory to the Allies and German peace with it's potential ities for another war is impossible.
 We must not forget that Germany has no, thought of retiring within her original boundaries: no willingness to give reparation for the ravishing of small nations, and absolutely no re- pentance whatever for either the col ossal crimes against justice and hu manity or the wholesale violation of the entire moral code.
 Peace with such an interruptions and immoral power as Prussian mifi- tarism Is unthinka bIe, and cannot be even seriously considered until that power has been crushed and in its place one established upon ideals more consonant with modern civili- zation. Nothing can compel such change as this in the Prussian mind, or destroy it's lust for world power, except a decisive Allied victory, the outlook for which improves daily. British and French forces seem quite able to hold on, and the Americans are happily now being rushed across in surprising numbers. Already our boys have shown their mettle and giv en the enemy a taste of what to ex- pect; and very shortly they will prove an important factor in the war. AS for recent piratical submarine attacks on defenseless American vessels in home waters, they will accomplish nothing except stimulating our ener- gies to a still keener pitch. and in this respect they will prove more ser viceable to us than to the enemy.
 There are two very encouraging factors in home business affairs; the outlook for a big cotton crop and also for a large wheat crop, both of which at this period promise to be record breakers. These are two of the most important crops raised in the United States, and their promise of abund- ance is as encouraging to our Allies as to ourselves. In other respects the crop situation Is favorable, and if present expectations are realized thev will tend to check high prces and prof1teering; for while tho Food Administration has accomplished wonders in the latter direction, the law of supply and demand cannot De ignored, and the task Of regulating prices will be much easier unoer abundance than under scarcity. In all industries pertaining to the war there is intense activity, and effort is being steadily shifted from the uh- necessary to the necessary products. One source of uncertainty has been removed, and that is labor which IS displaying high degree of patriot ism and steadily increasing it's out put: thus offsetting to some extent the losses through drafting into the army. British labor has doubled Its output since the war began by means of intense effort and better methods. Such an increase of product here, however, is hardly to be expected, for the reason that American labor has long been regarded as more ef- ticient than British and less inclined to unfair restrictions.
 Our industries are still moving m the direction of more absolute gov crnment control. The steel industry will probably be entirely regulated at Washington within a very snort tune; and now the textile manufacturers are looking in the same direction, pre- ferring the uniformity of government control to the confusion and uncer- tainties of part government and part private control, with at the same time widely t1uctuating margins of profit and labor problems to contend against Tn all industrial affairs the prospects are for Stricter government direction of both production and distribution during the war. Such efforts were at first restricted to the supplies of raw materials, but are now being directed to not a few semi manufactured prod ucts. Whether government interven-