The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-01-17

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-
tenn 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
| fighting 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 &C
tual sailings of troops for theN front,
and even those apparently become pub
lie property very quickly. What
Americans know about war prepara-
lions 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
battleships, even the whereabouts of
the fleet, are unknown to him; the
whole war is being conducted in alb
solute secrecy. Deleted by Censor).
More Publicity Needed Abroad.
That such a distorted view of the
war should become current is obvious
ly most unfortunate and undesirable.
The cure would seem to lie in more
publicity in Britain and France, rath-
err than less in the United States; if
it were 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
spring, one-Oeleted by Censor) the
number of British and French troops
that will be standing in the trenches,
allied military experts will be delight
ed. They do not expect so 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 Canadian division was not
able to take over a 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 tn, Name time that the first Ca
nadians diSembarked in France.
1t is not thought possible here that
the United States can greatly better
the recop ii the British DominiOns,
bect~us Dominion troops had the
adv v of the existing war machin-
cry 5ndon, and were at first placed
under british staffs. The American
army is being compelled to improvise
it's own machinery and it's 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" centuries 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; wild bayonet melee among
spluttering machine-gun bullets; then
the feverish organization of captured
trenches against counter-attack-th
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,
during the battle Of ArraS, and again
when I saw the Flanders battlefelds,
my main interest was in the signs and
portends visible Of the kind of war
the American army will have to wage.
TO try to predict what war will be like
in 1919, or even late next year, would
be madness; but it is safe to say that
it will be, first and foremost, war Of
concrete. And there will be, in the
zones Of the. offensives, no trench sys-
TENS. Trenches cannot exist, they be-
come mere death traps, under the
weight Of metal poured out during an
up-to-date battle.
Pill Boxes Replace Trenches.
The first evidences Of the concrete
war were available last spring. Profit
ing by the lessons Of the Somme, the
Germans installed thousands Of mix
ing machines behind their lines, and