Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-04-05
lis to end this summer. while another is equally certain
+h.t n a. To laSh fr several ya.r.. 49, ~N9

that 1t Is to last for several years.
In one belief the men At the front appear to- be
united. namely, that the Allies will win. This is aats-
factory and gratifying: 1t Is altogether ~, It. should be.
for, while the belief Is ~basedSon no speeinc information,
Fit does reflect the spirit Of Determination which rans
all through the Allied forces. II, that spirit did not
exist our case would be q poor one. But whom il. comes to
making predictions. as to what is 70 be the .prosress Of
the war. and how long it is to last.the man at the front
knows no more about 1t than the man at q distance. AS
a matter of fact. the closer a man gets to the actual
battle front the less likely he is to know much about the
general situation. %.4S =.
The man at the front knows Of his own personal
experiences as no one else can. He knows Of the life
of the trenches; the bursting Of shell> around him: the
thrill Of going over the top: the desperate, energy that
is put into hand-to-hand combat: and he knows Of all
the tragedies Of trench life. and Of the bits of comedy
that enliven it. H gains a knowledge Of the people of
the country. He sees them At work and at play. and
he learns something of the spirit which they are putting
into war work. All these are familiar to him. But
whether tomorrow is to be a day Of advance or retreat
he does not know. He knows nothing of the plans OF
his general. He knows nothing. until Ions after the
event, Of what is going on in some other sector than
his own. His knowledge is limited to his Immediate
Surroundings. .
To illustrate. take one situation. A soldier occupies
a position in a unit which holds \ place near the center
Of a spirited engagement which may be many miles long.
His section OF the army is engaged in an offensive move
ment. He and his companions 80 forward, fighting their
way successfully. and overcoming all Obstacles until =
considerable advance has been made, He and has com
panions arc jubilant over the victory. suddenly there
comes the order TO retreat, and the force which has SO
CALAMITY fought its way forward resraoes. its steps With
out knowing the reason Why The man in charge at
the movement knows. He IS not a, the front He may
be miles in the rear. Bu, he has learned by telegraph
and telephone that. while his center has gone forward
both wings have been forced back, And he understands
that unless he orders a SPEEDY retreat the force thar
has won its way forward viii be cut OF and killed or
ca ptured. The man a, the from, 1nexs nothing OF this.
The man at the rear knows.
One of the creates, moving picture producers in
the business spends days in the trenches TO arrange for
material for a srea; production He found tia, while
there he could see and hear and learn nothing that
would cast light on the general situation. He feund
that in the trenches there was little eren in the nature
of real action to be seen. He found thai tie aess PAGE
to see the typical action OF var vas som. fre nnaes
was in the open, and all the roads were flied with
masses of moving men. trucks, guns. and aa the para
phernalia Of war in apparently inext-ia se confusion.
A. special correspondents. was at the front -xi1h-a an I'M
from the 1sonzo. He did not know tia, there had been
a retreat until he read about it in the paper. asr.-ward.
The duration of the war is all a ns..er Of goes
work among civilians. 1t is even more a mater OF Eoess-
work among the soldiers at the front Tne generals ia
command may have some ideas on the subject hut 5.
they4have they are keeping their opinions to themselves