The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-01-26

new armies. A feeling is growing up
mere that In some miraculous way
america is going to do very startling
Things in the very near future. That
nope Is, of course, baseleSs.
The man in the street in London
gives vent to most extravagant figures
IN the subject of the American army.
lie seems to feel that the hundreds of
thousands of recruits he reads about
daily will fall upon the Germans in q
lew months. The danger undoubtedly
exists that when he finds that his ex-
pectationS are unfounded, his present
mood towards America will undergo
Il great change. Men here who know
the facts about what America is doing.
and what France and England are do
ing and have done, are alive to the
danger that extravagant hopes may
lead to reactions that will imperil the
good relations that are so greatly de-
sired.
Secrecy Gives False Perspective.
On the other hand, the present sys-
TEN of making everything public in
America regarding American war
preparations, and continuing to con-
ceal the facts In France and England,
prevents Americans from learning the
truth about the achievements of their
allies, and by the time our troops are
nGhting in France, may throw the
whole war into false perspective.
The difficulty is due to the Ameri-
can habit of trusting the people with
the facts, or with most of them. Amer
leans are told how many men are train
ing, and where; how many guns and
airplaneS are being built; what the ma
val program consists in; almost every
Thing about the war excepting the ac-
tual sailings Of troops for the front,
and even those apparently become pub
lie property very quickly. What
Americans know about war prepara-
tons in the United States quickly cir
culateS in Europe, in inflated form, be-
cause here the widest rumOrS and
most optimistic reports are credited.
Here, on the contrary. from the be-
ginning of the war people have been
told nothing about their army or fleet.
The man in the street has no idea how
many divisions Britain has in the field :;
the very names of her twenty newest
battlcShipS. even the whereabouts of
the fleet. are unknown to him; the
whole war is being conducted in alb
Solute secrecy. Oeleted by Censor).
More Publicity Needed Abroad.
That such distorted view of the
war should become current is obvious
ly most unfortunate and undesirable.
publicity in Britain and France, rath-
er than less in the United States; if
it We're possible to tell the world what
Is being done here. in the same graphic
way that people are being informed
about the preparations in America, the
German staffs might get some valu-
able information, but the German peo-
pie certainly would be plunged in de-
spair.
If the United States is able to place
in the battle line in France, when the
campaign gets fairly under way next
number Of British and French troops
that will be standing in the trenches,
| allied military experts will be delight
ed. They do not expect 80 much help
| In so short q time.
The only precedent for the efforts
of America to play part in the war in
France lies In the transport overseas,
in 1915, of Canadian and Australian
| troops. The Canadians had one regi-
ment of BOer war veterans, the Prin-
! cess Pats, in line during the first win
, ter but a Canadian division was not
able to take over sector Of Its own
until April, 1915, eight months after
| war began. The Australian and New
Zealand army corps reached Egypt, on
| the way to the Dardanelles campaign,
about the same time that the first Ca
nadians disemDarked in France.
1t is not thought possible here that
the United States can greatly better
the record of the British Dominions,
because the Dominion troops had the
advantage Of the existing war machin-
cry in London, and were at first placed
under British STATS. The American
army is being compelled to improvise
| its own machinery and its own staff
out of a war establishment not more
than one-fifth as big as, and with far
less war experience than, the one exist
ing in London in 1914. (Deleted by
| CenSOr).
Tactics Changed Since 1916.
When, in the distant future, the
American armies do charge upon the
enemy, the science of war will bear lit
| tie resemblance to the 1915 and 1916
| fighting which the phrase "over the
! top" conjures up to the average read
err. A great bombardment, while lines
of men wait in trenches with fixed bay
onets to charge upon the enemy at
! dawn; a wild bay0oet melee among
spluttering machine-gun bullets; then
the feverish organization of captured
| trenches against acll-this
was war; in the old days of the SOmme.
Such war is almost obsolete now. By
the time Pershing's men Ego in," it will
be as out of date as the tactics of
Shiloh or Gettysburg.
When I went over the captured
ground on the Vimy ridge and beyond
| ~ I'D ofv