Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-05-15
WEDNESDAY EVENING. MAY IS, 1915.

WEDNESDAY vENING MAY IS, 1915.
WHAT We HAVE DONE AND NOT DONE
70 the stories of failure in munitions and aircraft.
Secretary Bakers announcement of half a million Amer
lean soldiers in France comes as a cheerful onset. AS
against the claims Of optimism Or pessinism in other
branches of our war-effort Mr.. Bakers statements have
the merit Of concreteness. It is true he did not say half
a million men; he said the half-millon estimate made in
January has been surpassed" That is the kind Of
vasueness we can easily reconcile ourselves to. 1t does
not behoove US to make the Baker figures a sprinsboard
into unmitigated confidence. But the time is at hand
for striking something like a balance between what We
have done for the cause Of the allies in, the thirteen
months since We entered the war, and what we have fail.
ed to do.
In four ways the country set out to give help to the
allies: men, munitions, food, ships. As to the proper
priority within this list. emphasis has shifted from time
to time, a circumstance to which part of such failure as
We must confess to must be debited. IT was men first
when Marshal Joffre was in this country. 1t became food
with the advent Of the bad crops all over the world in
1917. 1t became ships when the unrestricted U-boat war
fare total mounted up with the months 1t became men
again when Colonel House returned from his mission with
the decision Of the inter allied council at Paris. It has
been more than ever men since the beginning Of the Ger
A'NH SsASASAVS 0"u IAC V'Si01O IAAdv VI OHc IcdSOu -
another, the British fighting strength on the western
front was not what we had been led to suppose.
What has been our record Of achievement in these
four primal catesories? Regarding food, there il little to
hessaid. Oar measures have been, judging BY possibilities
in wartime, anhunqualified success. we have fed the
alias And I'VE have taken care Of ourselves. The rally
of the country. to Mr.. Hoover has been splendid. From,
the anna eurs wa gardens whose results are moral father
than practical, to the farmers increased acreaees, in spite
of debate about the proper price Of wheat, the country
has risen to its duty. Last winter we feared panic prices
for flour in this country for this spring. The price of
flour has been going down. Today we read Of the PROS
poets Of a magnificent wheat crop. Mr.. Hoover will not
claim credit for the heavy snow storms Of last winter
with their beneficent moisture for the food fields, nor
for the extremely favorable spring weather. Yet, on the
other hand. Mr.. Hoover would have been eyed askance
if yesterdays crop report had been a dismal one. Such
is the psychology of war-criticism.
With regard to, fighting men, the record shows that
within a little less than a year from the first registration
under the selective draft We have brought some 1,200,-
900 men of the national army under the colors. Add to
this the regular army Of about 400, 900 men and the Ma
tional Guard Of approximately the same strength, and the
yield Of the first year Of war has been two million men.
But Of these two millions, ought we to have had in France
more than the possible 500, 900 or 100000 men indicated
in Mr.. Bakers statement: Mr.. Roosevelt and other
critics Of our failure would say so; but not 80 ennphati-
cally the impartial observer who has recognized the mag
nitude Of our entire task or who has seen what other
nations have accomplished. Our army now is not much
smaller than the British army when 1t delivered its first
offensive at Neuve Chapele in March, 1915, after nearly
eight months of war. Count Britain's other armies in
Gallipoli and elsewhere, and still our showing is far
from disgraceful, considering how bitter was the nsces-
sny under which England made her effort. In septem-
Der, 1915, the British army held about forty miles OF
L> - a LAe-> r~. $500 H. >i-~xA = -
today II that were the plan Of the allied high command.
when we come to ships we begin with our list of
disAppointments. partial or complete. Today 1t may
seem 4 pity that long months were lost in experiments
and sauabbles. Yet the experiments had to be made.
what would have happened in a democracy if Mr.. Will
son had refused q fair trial to the happy-thought wooden
shipa7 But if the past has its regrets, the present and
future oner compensations. The speed Of our old ana new
shipyaFds is cumulative with the months. Admiral Sims
believes that in . short time the new construction will
balanes the Usboat sinkings. But, after all, the test Of
ships y in the shipping. WI apparently have the bot
toms for pouring our men into France, though undoubt-
sdly the allied shipping Il a help. We have done ex-
traofAinary work in facilitating transport BY ~quicknss,
of turnover; Ths convoy system presumes a slackenins
10 ~ speAd Of the sloMest ship. Yet We hear of convoy.
s@of more than q dozen ships crossing the Atlantic in seven
days And setting ont for home in four or five dAys Here
too. snsery our navy. II - helped In the shipping prob:
I'm - IL work asainst ne u.Doat ana ~ ~ work ii
eonxsy
M account ciosss wtth 81 sA,eassntiy hssv dsbs
ehaso ~ ~ mastsf of munitions ana sairpianss. Msrs
puS MN1t wait ~ fullef Information before ~confssstns
s1AtMAs scrStATxgHskyr s~tatsassnt with regard q
@xIG1tAAn N1E6w1iae xunsE u ins pretty sharp contradtction to tn
s6Se1li1 s1he xarptans amua1Is ~ moi 1ilsaysts y ~
s9T1asxsd6sSe a~ays Bnt Is spsAxins y sAsisrs ~ Aitplahsl
aaa 3eaaa xe scannst overlook Inst factor ~ pftortt,
X2SSsSgaAsnith6 IL - R1xns sapaen4 - sastun6a