New Britain herald., 1918-09-05
Moving Toward Victory.
(Boston Evening Transcript.

Premier Clemenceau is man of abounding optimism and when he says
 that the war is likely to be finished
 this year he doubtless believes 1t. But the military authorities are against
 him. It is their unanimous agreement that no military decision is to be eX-
 pected this year, and that the settle
 ment of the war will be left to a great American army in the year 1919. We
 may therefore with profit refrain from becoming excited over the gains which the Allies are making on the
 western front. Gains there certainly are; but it seems that they do not
 permit us to expect anything else than a slow completion of the summer and autumn campaigns with the enemy line still intact, somewhere, from Bel
 gium to the Swiss frontier, with slow winter campaign following that
 and then, when spring comes again, a girding of the lOins of the nations for the supreme and conclusive struggle.
 It is for that final clinch that we are
 assembling the young manhood of America, and taxing ourselves to the
 limit and summOning every resource of the national energy and ingenuity Almost it seems as if we should turn aside from the victories that are won on the Aisne, the Olse, the Avre, the Lys, and. keeping our teeth in dog gedly, should proceed as if the enemy were still on the Marne, still at the gates of Paris. -still within easy gun shot of Amfens and it's lovely shrine.
 Just the same, it is vastly better, even in view of what seems a long deferment of the decision. to know +l Ir;,. the gains. and not the Germans. Nor is it possible for any candid observer to belittle the importance of the very latest advances made by the French. for example, on the ridge north of the Aisne and between that river and the Disc, facing Noyon and looking tow ard Laon This is the same gencl;
 plateau as that on which the Chemin des Danes runs farther east, and the German commanders inability to keep the French off it puts him in a de- Cidedly ticklish position. The advance points, with the British gain in the valley of the Iys, far to the north, to q new and grander "pinCer" operation on a scale which, if well supported, must menace the whole position of the German armies in France. We say, however, merely that it points in that direction for 1t is impossible to sup pose that Marshal FoCh as yet has a sufficient force of reserves to attempt that major and conclusive operation In all this fighting, the Allies are us ing their forces of the line only, and are still withholding and accumula- ting their reserves. A grand Offen- sivc on such a scale. with a movement in force against the German Hanks, north and south, can hardly be on Marshal Foch's books for the present year. But the progressive depletion of the German strength that is now proceeding, the progressive discour- l a cement and exhaustion of the Ger l man people, and the progressive inn provement of the Allied position, re- | sources and morale, in preparation | for the final victory, may be well l within the commanders plans.
 Toward the end the battle goes well 1 indeed. Marshal Foch retains the in 1 itiative, and there is no sign that Lu- ] dendorff possesses the resources, hu- i man or material. that will enable him 1 to Wrcst it from him.