Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-15
Whv German Drives Don't Alarm Us

SHudI III SNSh liO" "hSAi
Russia has abandoned the fight and
the United States armies have not
arrived in any force. They are not
inferior in material, for there is
practically nothing to choose be-
tween the allied and the German
artillery and equipment, though
here again the American Army has
not appeared on the field in any
force.
One element Ma jor Moraht omit
ted in his past studies-namely the
air service. This is of great i'm
portance to-day. Here, before the
late battle. the allies were markedly
superior, despite the disastrous
strikes in the winter which affected
our program, as Mr.. Lloyd George
stated some time ago. With the loss
of so many aerodromes, owing to the
distance the allies retreated, the
Germans have recovered some
ground. They are able to fly over
our lines, photograph, bomb, and
use the machine gun against our
men, much as We do, though we do
all this to a greater degree"
Even in unexpected circles the
quiet confidence of the nation is re-
Elected. For example, that brilliant
and normally pesslmistic London
time during the war come out with
what its enemies have called rank
pacitism," has these very lucid re-
marks on the present series OF Ger
man ofeensiYes:
! I'VE can see with perfect clear
ness that out of the struggle a fun
damentally changed situation will
emerge. 1t is net land or cities
which are the German objective,
but simply a decision; and either the
enemy will succeed in his immediate
military purpose or he will be so
weakened that the end OF the war
WIZ be finally sure. The plans of
the military who urged and planned
this offensive are ambitious enough.
They set for each days advance a.
depth of penetration which would
have entai!ed such enormous losses
that, in fact, the German infantry,
| in spite of their extraordinary num-
bers, courage and persistence, were
| unable to achieve it. The staff
knew how terrible would be the
price of any appreciable advance in
the present stage of defensive war
rare. But minds like there are lit
tie troubled with scruples.> They
must, however, be literally burdened
with apprehensions. If they should
not wreck our means of continuing
the war; the very plans which
should have brought them success
| VIII prove their ruin. They will not
abandon the hope of q decision while
they still possess any mass of re-
serves. They will throw into the
struggle all the men they can dis
pose of; but in the end, failing vic
tory, they will have shot their bolt. /"
so confident are some of the OBJ
servers that they believe that this
series of offensives is Germany's
last throw. and that one crashin p
counter offensive by General Foc6
VIII mean the end of things. and
that peace, victorious allied peace,
rs now in sight. For example. the
London Morning Post draws atten-
ton TO the significant statement
that these offepsives are coofessedIv
the ka'ser'S battle" and that the
A'l-hfghest has staKed his dynastv
upon the result. Therefore. argues
me Post, the Kaiser will go on until
MS men ale completely exhausted.
when they viii fa.l 9a easy prey to
counter-attsck. L seys:
Fal!ure does nos mean simply as
you We're. 1t means IUjn. And par
ucu'arly does il IN can the disapDear-
ance of the Hohen2olle, That the
German Emperor and his gene. ais
now clearly PEI rcs;ve that they NAV
be defeated Is obvious. Pan5e the
Kajser's battle and reckless de-
termination to win it unexampled in
history. 1t is sometimes glibly re-
peated that Germany mus have
peace. What Germany, which is
the German Emperor and his army,
must have is victory. For II they
do not win they may, from the
dynastic point of view, as well per-
ish in the endeavor And that IS
exactly what is happening. The
dynasty is desperate and the Ger
man Emperor is perfectly prepared
to sacrifice. and will sacrifice. his
enti-e army in the las. effort Ia
achieve victory in his battle"
Much the same point of view is
taken by the military critic of the
Huricher Post, one of the Swiss pa
pers which has been up TO the pres
ent consistently pro-German. He
considers that after the failure OF
the first two attacks. General Toch
is in position where he can choose
his own time to strike:
The German attackers are un-
able to hinder the carefully planned
deployment of enemy reserves The
first two violent attacks of the Ger!
man army in the west have exhaust.
ed themselves, and their continu.