The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-03-28

playing on the German ad
vance with deadly effect.
Reports vary in the number of men
that are being thrown by the Germans
n this awful arnage. But it would
seem that there must be nearly one
and one-half million men on the fifty
mile front. Reports have said that
the Germans were piled on the ground
where they had been shot down, in
such numbers as to hinder the advance
Of their oncoming troops. A report Of
yesterday said that the German loss
would run nearly to fifty per cent of
the total in the field, and if they have
had the number estimated their loss
must have been nearly one hundred
thousand per day. Match this with
the total claim of the Germans that
they have taken fifty thousand pris-
oners and you can readily see that in
this great encounter the real loss is
falling on the German side. There
seems to be no dispute that the man
ouyers adopted by Haig have been
those Of a wise and canny general,
who, knowing that he was outnum-
bered, has prevented the enemy to
realize the full superiority of his
strength in numbers. Every move OF
the morale of the allies. The massed
formation Of attack, fierce in aspect;
the long distance bombardment rof
Paris, with its attempt to i%ntimidate;
the horrible gas attacks, all were done
in the belief that such a strong show
of force and frightfulness would cause
The allied side to Whimper and shrink
into their boots. But what has been
The outcome of all this display o.
brute ~massiyeness? 1t has failed in
every respect to accomplish the result
desired. The English are in excellent
fighting spirit, even though they are
giving way and retiring to better po-
sitions for defense. The French are
showing the utmost courage and the
latest reports show hat they are COM
battle line with the same spirit of
absolute patriotism that has charac-
terized every battle in which they
have fought. The allied mind is not
that of the German. 1t can endure
repulse, it can fall back without losing
courage, it can even go into the very
depths of disaster without giving 10
the ideal for which it is fighting. The
very soul of the English, French and
Americans is what sustains them in
this awful conflict, while the German
only has the brute mastery of the mill
tary class to urge him on to death. A
great Swiss general who has just visit
ed the front, says that the American
soldier, like the F~renchman, knows
what he is fighting for, and realizes
that he is there for a purpose which
means good to the world. Without
the spiritual force that is the bulwark
of all the allies, the Germans would
have succeeded in the very first days
of this great attack.
The attack is slowing down, the enc
my appears to be tired, the supplies
and re-enforcements are longer and
slower in coming up, the time is soon
at hand when Haig, like Joffre at the
L NJ prnA Ill ,Aa1a tI@ --l ----.
attack and with an army that will bt
replenished with new troops fresh
from the rear, he will administer ;
defeat to the Germans that will place
them in a position where they canno'
profit by any ground that they may
have taken. Or again, it may be tina
the reserve army of the allies, which
was organized by the Versailles mill
tary council, will be thrown into tn,
fight and when the time comes admin
lister a blow to the Germans from
which they will be slow to recover
Frank Simonds, the great American
military authority, writing on Monda,
nlght looks for an immediate SLOWING
Of the German advance and an indica
: ton of when and where the counter
attack of the British will take place
He claimed then that if the German.
did not break through the British de
Tense within forty-eight hours hat
they would never do it. That time i: