Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-05-10
THE end OF The war
British Authority Says II viii Come
In 1919.
that WILL Be AHERICA'S Year
Germans are Trying to Bring Things
to q Conclusion While They Have
the Advantage, But When They
Realize they Are Losing, Will Sing
Out for Peace.

the Advantage, But "hen ihey
Realize they Are Losing, Will Sing
Out for Peace.
That Germany lost the war" when
her C-boats sank the Lusitania and
that peace will come next year when
the full military might Of America,
combined with that Of the allies. is
hurled against her. though the fighting
may still be In France and Flanders,
Is the belief OF the allied military
leaders as expressed by W. Beach
Thomas, who Is In this country fresh
from the British headquarters in
France. In Current Opinion for May
this spokesman of the allied high COM
mand goes further and says that the
present great drive Is Germany's
acknowledgment that she must win
now or never, and that German defeat
will come In 1919 with the armies
not far from the cliff Of trenches that
ioin the floods OF Nsuport TO the
ncighborhood OF the Swiss mountains
where the French are clinging TO
one small reach OF German terri
tory" He writes:
Oscillations there will be, victories
and defeats there will be at this and
that spot in the line; and one day
| there will be symptomatic defeat
and victory from which any observer,
whether he Is seer or not, Will be able
to deduce with some certainty the
| progressive decline Of one side or the
other. II Is inconceivable to the
| mind for any leaders among the allies
that this progressive declinc-this
SPOT on the fair fruit OF the alliance
| can appear among them while Ameri-
ca, with her 100 million people and
resources that defy arithmetic. Is
| heart and soul in the cause. We may
have defeats but not progressive de-
fcats. Those are reserved for the
Central powers. When the first Of this
sort comes, peace will be in sight.
Germany will not wait-neither her
population nor her army authorities
will permit it'll she tumbles back
/ in successive failures upon her
own frontiers, and the targets for the
growing hordes of airmen come nearer
and nearer, and the boom OF the
Liberty engine at last plays foreign
music over German cities"
Further:
american influence on the war will
he irresistible: her ships. her men,
her wealth, her will. When Tirpitz
rose victor from the interview with
Bethmann- Hollweg and the U-boats
sank the Lusitania with a pair OF
torpedoes, Germany lost the war,
whatever may be the date Of the
proclamation Of piece. Ths cardinal
reason OF the new German offen-
sivc, up TO and over the old battle
ground of the Somme, Is the convic-
tlon in Germany that 1919 Is Americas
year, and that if Germany Is to
force any sort Of victory she must
force 1t in 1918, before America Is
ready. And not late in 1918.
"The German public has just begun
to understand that the U-boats. which
drove America into the war. are fail
ing, have failed, to compel decision.
| In the everlasting see-saw between
the arts of offense and defense, the de-
fcnsc, which was inferior has begun
to rise to n level. The people OF The
| Central powers lost one ground OF
confidence after another, but this
was the most solid. Early In the war
some English residents in London
were seriously warned by close friends
| in Germany to leave England instant
IL as II would be made untenable by
Zeppelins. Nearly all the general
population in Germany believed this,
as they will believe anything they are
| told from above But one fetish aft
er another has proved false god;
and now both the public and the
high command have been driven
back to the old faith that the army
and only the army Is their shield and
their buckler. To act as n shield
i
pared with little concealmcnt-in-
deed with much advertisement of
kaiscrs and Hindenburgs-to amass
the biggest onslaught ever conceived
by the mind Of man or hatched In his
factories. 1t was no secret to US.
IL spoke with one of'the most
| thoughtful and successful Of our
| generals at the end of January. as he
returned to France from Italy. The
Hun he said, is going to attack US
good and proper. 1t will be the vast
est thing in drives over imagined.
But the more he attacks. the better
for u.s. The German is a great learn
er: much more remarkable, even in
military affairs. as a learner than as
an originator. He learned and amass-
cd for this attack. Almost all the
forms of 'frightfulness' used against
him during the war. He copied our
trench mortars-much the best then
invented-and our trench artillery. He
doubled their number. He copied
our deadly device of throwing gas In
cylinders from mortars. On the ad-
vice OF General Won Arnim. who
commanded against the British in
the Somme battle Il have seen the
generals memorandum). he equip
ped his infantry with hand carried
flame -throwers, which are chiefly use
full for inspiring terror. He built lit
tie armored cars for carrying for
ward ammunition, OF which absurdly
exaggerated accounts were publish
cd in Germany for public consump-
ton. He made light, very mobile
guns much on the American model.
He built vast underground tunnels
and caverns capable Of concealing a
division of men at a time, and con-
cealed in them first his storm troops,
then his reserves. He brought up not
only field guns and howitzers (espe-
cially the standardized $3.50. but al
most enough long range guns Of a
semi naval type they were planned