Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-22
ovERcoNF1DENCE NEW PERIL
Hope for Short War, but Prepare for a
Long One

| people. Already you VIM iii" ~
Vulnerable persons reading exaggerated
meanings into the reports of the Allied
offensive in France. In the speed ana
glitter of the American reactions at their
first big battle and in the binding sword
play Of the Foch strategy they see
omens of the wars early end.
Otherwise intelligent men and women
are visioning the Kaiser doddering at st.
Helena as a result of the Marne drive
and the Crown Prince going for walk
at sunrise with the fool killer, and Ger
manic Europe. recovered from its night
mare. humbled, reformed and back again
peacefully at the delicatessen and the
grand opera of its early innocence
Delusions like these are as full OF
trouble as dynamite if too freely fondled.
The war is likely to be for us as it has
been for France and England and Italy.
| 1t may bring shocks, suspense, sorrow
and minor disasters. If it does not we
are the uckiest nation on the earth and
| an exception to all the rules of human
experience.
To become seif-satisfed, complncent,
disipterested or careless noW is to make
the burden hearier for the Government.
the army and the nary.
We have just begun to fight. The
Allies will continue to advance, in all
likelihood. But it will be a slow advance
unless a miracle occurs somewhere-a
slow and tortuous advance and costly
one So if ever there was a time for
America to be resolute and patient and
restrained in its feelings and its judg-
ment that time is now. The actual par
ticipation of our own men in major
action should inspire us not to COM
pacency, but to determination and re-
newed energy, because no one can tell
when the war will end and too much opti
msm at this time will be as useful to
Germany as armed divisions in America.
Self satisfaction marks the end of
useful achievement.
It is natural enough for all of us to
cheer for the men in France. We can
do more for them by bending harder to
whatever war jobs we have to do, so that
their part of the business may not be
made harder, and by acting favorably
upon whatever suggestions are made by
the Government and it's administrative
agencies and by taking nothing for
granted,
Our men in France and the officers,
high and low, who direct them are not
demigods. They cannot always rise su-
premely above the fortunes of war.
The time to cheer them loudest is When
they suffer misfortune.
The navy isn't superhuman-though it
has seemed to be. We may lose ships
sooner or later, because few wars were
ever fought upon the sea without the
loss of ships. To take the bad news with
the good and be unmoved to excess of
feeling in either event is to be equal to
these exacting times.
There are simple grounds for this sort
of reasoning. Germany is far from
beaten. German aspirations are like a
cat. They have nine lives-and each
may have to be put out in turn. Ger
many lost an empire when her colonies
were taken away. She lost another en-
pire in her overseas trade. She lost an
other when the respect of the whole
civilized world was denied her. She has
as good as lost Alsace and Lorraine.
And get Germany is far richer in
prospects at the present moment than
she 'cas at the outset of the ,var The
Allies may have to crush Germany
not upon the western front alone To save
the world from ruin they may have to
begin all over again after victory in
the west and crush Germanism in the
stronghold that she is building in Russia.
And that second war may have to be
fought in welter of unfavorable COM
plications sprung from the growing con-
fusion Of national aspirations in that
part of the world.
There is dim possibility on the other
hand, of collapse in Germany that
would make the task simpler. But it is
still remote. 1t will be better for all
America to work at the war as hard and
as brilliantly and as patiently as the
soldiers in France are fighting at it.
Representative Julius Kahn. of Cali
fornia, ranking Republican member of the
House Military Affairs Committee. who
has had much to do with the legislation
of the war, already has expressed the
conviction, gained through knowledge
and experience, that American energy
should be redoubled at this point rather
than diminished.
Men and more men should be sent to
France, said Mr.. Kahn. American force
should be felt in Germany as a cumula-
tive factor without end. This view, it is
to be hoped, will be shared by Washing
ton. And as the army grows the more