The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-06-06
ANOTHER Year OF WAR IS PREDICTED
Campaign of 1919 Seems Sure, Declares Simonds-French and
British Are Putting In Their Last Reserves, But American
Determination Will Eventually Down the Huns.
that are bound to come.

to have enough reserves left for this.
His problem Is to hold the German
this year, imposing as great casualties
as possible and losing as few men as
possible, hat there may be q cam
paign of 1919.
We must get the conditions Of this
gigantic battle clearly in mind. 1t Is a
colossal Waterloo, with the French
generalissimo playing the British role
and the Americans playing the role OF
the Prussians a century ago. The Ger
man has decided, as did Napoleon. to
risk everything on a decisive battle be-
fore all his enemies are ready. He
has won initial successes, as did Ma
poleon. On a large scale his progress
to date suggests Ligny. but he has
still to win the decisive phase and he
must win 1t this year.
Watching the ebb and flow of the
battle in the next weeks lad months
we are bound to keep this essential
condition in mind. The German must
destroy the military power Of Britain
or of France to win the war this year..
He may shift his attack to the French
and strike at Rheims instead Of at
Amiens or at Calais, put he must dis
pose of n Of his enemies, n If he
fails then there is an end of any hope
of winning a complete victory, of end
ing the war by a western treaty OF
Brest-Litovsk. He will have to nego-
tate with the prospect Of facing a
new American army next year If he
does not get peace by negotiation.
Allies Will Not Crack.
And this brings me to my third
point. Is there any change of a col
lapse Of the French or British public
under pressure which may compel
large di~slocation of the British line
n considerable evacuation of French
territory? / do not believe It, and
credible and material evidence coming
to me from both France and Britain
seems to prove that neither country
Will break under any strain that is
now conceivable. For Britain to break
now IL the kaiser reached the channel
would be the ruin Of the empire and
the end of security at home, for with
the kaiser at Calais, London would be
a closed port and the Straits OF Dover
commanded by German ann
AS for the French, their condition is
Infinitely better thar it was a year ago,
and so far they have suffered relatively
slight losses in the fighting Of the cam
paign. Nor were their losses great last
year. 1t is upon the British that the
great strain has been put in the past
two years, but the strain has not Suf-
feed to break them nor is there the
smallest reason for believing that they
will or can break now, when to fail
would be to surrender their position as
a great power and their own safety in
the British Isles.
We shall do we'll to recognize that the
British have suffered terribly In the
past two years, and that 1T is unwise
and unjust to expect Of them what we
now expect OF ourselves. War weari-
ness is a act in Britain, as it is in
France. We nave seen signs n we
shall probably see more signs of the
strain in h ext few months. But it
-. @~Nl ks~1A q xAnI AID,. sl-a TO-.
pened in the north in 1864 Of our own
civil war.
In a sense, the situation comes down
to this: The British n French alike
are putting in their last reserves.
Neither will have any considerable re-
serve when this present campaign is
over. They could not and would not
do this were it not for the visible dem
o%nstration that America is coming.
Their strength will enable them to hold
the line this year with such minor aid
as we can supply. But it would not
enable them to face another campaign
If there were not from 1000, 600 to
100000 Of American troops to count
on next year.
But the 1000, 900 is an established and
calculable fact; this being so there Is
not the smallest chance that French or
British publics will think Of making
peace with the German, who has scored
material but not decisive successes this
year and will seek to get peace by
negotiation based upon his present
holdings and without regard to Ameri-
can man power. which Is to intervene
next year. The French, having held the
line until we arrive, will not be ready
to make peace on the basis Of 1914.
Alsace-Lorraine will be the smallest
price they a exact and are entitled to
exact. The British will not make peace
| pyhi1a their anamV still sits at Calais
and threatens India.
Germany's Hope in East.
Unless Germany can hold Russia and
the Balkans, with their Asiatic fringes,
she canno hope and does not hope to
escape the appropriate ruiz which the
war promises for her. But none Of the
allies a consent to the perpetuation
Of German rule and domination in
Russia and along the Black sea with
out insuring future wars n preserv-
ing the precise Prussian peril we are
all fighting to abolish. This fact has
come home to the mass of the German
people, and explains in some slight de-
gree their present unity. Every class
of German subject knows that ruin is
inevitable unless there be conquests
and indemnities.
Thus, when the present campaign
ends and the German begins his peace
maneuyers, as he certainly will il de-
cisive victory n escaped him, his
very necessities will compel him to de-
mand terms which his enemies could
only accept if they were conquered.
And they will not be conquered, but
will have at their hand a great, new
force, a practically ineXhaustible reser-
voir of American man power, while
German man power, like their own,
will have been well nigh exhausted, at
least wasted, beyond the possibility Of
another such offensive as we are now
facing in the west.
AS for hunger ard war WEAKNESS
driving the German people to rebellion
they nay rebel, but it is idle to eN-
pert or hope hat they will. Russia
yielded to her misery and permitted
Internal disorder to lead to external
weakness, and the German people have
the spectacle of Russia before them
now to serve as a warning. And 1t Will
serve as a warning. The eastern con-
quests will contribute much to allie
Waiting the hunger and to supplying
necessary things which the blockade
has kept out of Germany. The worst
Of the food problem will probably be
over permanently before next winter
closes.
1t seems to me that the German
leaders and rulers will still be able to
control their subjects, if % by prom
Uses Of fresh victories at least by the