davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03

matter of life and death for him that
the advance of the Allies, whenever it
took place, should not be here. He
brought up against the American effort
everything he could possibly spare, even
to the extent of weakening other sec
tors to the north, and as far as mere
ground is concerned he has parried the
blow for the moment.
AS we all know, the advance in this
sector toward Grandpre which has been
reached and passed, and toward Dun,
which is not yet reached has been a
very painful and laborious effort and
expensive in men, and has covered five
weeks. Judged by the map alone, or
by any one who did not consider the
strategical problem as whole, it looks
like failure.
1t is nothing Of the kind. On the
contrary, it is an operation absolutely
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
Financial Structure of Germany Is Totterng to Fal

it is now clear that Posen will be detached
and also Alsace-L Lorraine, including the iron
mines. In addition it is at least very prob
able that Prussia will lose q part of Schlcs-
wig-Holsten, and the income derived from
these provinces will go elsewhere. The
Kaiser's little scheme for running q war of
rapid aggression without putting any new
taxes OH his people is therefore likely in
deed certain, to recoil heavily on his vic
tins thus deluded. ] do not deny that
Britain has been terribly hit in this strug-
gle-more, perhaps, than some Americans
realize. With wealth amounting to about
$100,000,000,000, which is less than half that
o. the United States, we have already spent
$4,000 100000 But of this sum $40 900 00O,-
600, or onequarter, is paid for by taxes.
SO that only $4,000, 900, 900 has been Dor
rowed, of which $8,ooo,O 900 900 has been lent
to allies and dominions. We do not expect
to receive payment for more than about half
this item, but even here we are better off
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
I'm From Iowa; Where Are You From?"

"HE American tourist of musical
comedy conception is, perforce,
off the boards, and will be till the
end Of the war, at least. 1t ap-
pears, however, that he has not been ex-
overwhelmingly diverted--and we
have in his place the variety that Charles
Belmont Davis, writing in "The Metro
politan Magazine" calls the "stater."
Like his predecessor, the "stater" is
harmless and well-meaning; neverthe-
less-well, here's what Mr.. Davis says of
him:
''From the first day of our arrival in Liv-
erpool think the real desire Of every mem
Der of the mission Of which was mem
Der was to see our boys in France. Once
there it was certainly not difficult to find
them. In Havre we found them on the pier
and on the streets and in camps and bar
racks. think what liked best
about them was that in few months they
had become so thoroughly an integral part
of the great war machine of the Allies The
remark of the coster girl after she had
watched line after line of our troops march
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03

plenty Of money for investment, but it also
meant that solid things like stocks of chem
icals, wool, food, ETC., were being turned
into paper. The time has come when paper
is the only plentiful thing in the Gather
land" and people are asking how the paper
is secured 1t is now admitted that the
ninth German loan of September last was a
failure. This means that Germany is spend
ing $32, 100000 day on the war without
being able to find the money either by taxa
tion or by loan. In other words, she is
living on temporary accommodation.
Incidentally, may compare her condition
with that Of the sUnited States, which has
resources amounting not to $4,000, 100000
but to $225,000,O 100000, and has borrowed
against those resources not $35,00o,cCc0o0,
but as yet only about s16,0oo,ooO,o0o.
That comparison is final in determining
Germany's ability to win this war. She
cannot last out.
She would be in better position if her
financial system were honest, but it is not.
Relying on hope of indemnties to be paid
by all countries which the troops occupied,
she expected to nreet the cost of short
war by means Of blackmail and plupder.
her. as upon Others burdens which are far
in excess of any possible receipts of this
kind, and with the certainty that the Allies
have it in their power themselves to occupy.
German territory the question to-day is
not how much of indemnity Germany will
receive, but how much she will be requested
to pay. This is situation as painful as it
is surprising to German financiers, and no
preparations have been made to meet it.
Let me explain what this means. In Lon
don our leading financial paper is "The
Economist" which estimates that the per-
manent revenue Of the German Empire on
the present basis OF taxation will be $1,750,-
100000. II interest is to be paid on the
debt expenditure will lie between $4,000
100000 and $5.0oO,000,00O. In other words,
the German budget to-day does not cover
one-half the certain outlay by Germany in
her first year OF peace. In this reckoning
I am not including expenses arising out of
temporary mobilization. The estimate is
for normal year, when things have settled
down.
The above figures assume that the Ger
many Of tomorrow will include ali the ter
ritorz which was hers before tho war, but
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03

Republicans and Democrats, Liberals and
Conservatives in the English-speaking coun-
tries Loyalty accept. The reason Germany
cannot meet her liabilities is that she can
not go for money to the people who have
money.
Her position is precisely similar to that
of France in the eighteenth century, when
revolution would have been avoided, so
far as we can see, if the Bourbons mad been
able to persuade the privileged classes to
forego their immunity from the burdens
which fell so heavily on the peasants. Some
people say that Germany can cut the Cor
dian knot by merely cancelling her debt,
which means that nobody would pay taxes
or receive interest. That is all very we'll,
but the debt was the security on which
commerce was to be rehabilitated after the
war; and if mans guaranteed assets dis
appear in the night how precisely will he
meet his liabilities in the morning? Even
Turkey, in her periods of spring cleaning,
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03

assumed responsibility for proportion OF
her debts, only leaving say, half to the
will of Allah, If Germany repudiates, then
it is reputation, and up to the present re-
pudiation has been regarded as tantamount
to national insolvency.
Gcrmany's position is the more serious
because her trade, which abounded before
the war, was largely speculative and based
upon borrowed capital Her balance sheet
was inflated by ambition and was much less
sound than the more cautious achievements
OF nations which regarded trade as human
service rather than imperial aggression.
That trade has largely gone, Consider for
one moment what Germany lost when she
despised Great Britain. Before the war
Britain was Germany's best customer. buy
ing from her goods to the value of 1,00O,-
100000 marks year. Even Austria Hun
gary, With larger population than ours,
only purchased the value of S50,O0O,0 900
marks. We sold to Germany the value of
800,000,000 marks, and 1 suppose she paid
the balance to US in freghts and interest
on our loans to her Commercially we we're
by far the best friends that Germany ever
had, yet to-day Germany has so antagonized
our seamen that they will not carry as pas
senger a representative of the workers like
Arthur Henderson because they think that
he might be too ready to discuss peace by
negotiation. The whole of that immense
trade. passing to and fro between Germany
and Great Britain, has been shattered and
while England will find other outlets, Ger
many. bereft Of tonnage, is left helpless
save in SO far as she can prove a sincere
repentance and desire to make reparation
for the crimes which she has committed.
All this has bearing on her ability to
double Or treble her taxes, rather the
revenue derived from them, which is not
quite the same thing. In the opinion of
many people the vast industries which Ger
many built up before the war will not
quickly recover, and mid Europe, dependent
for IS per cent of its raw materials on
Allied nations, viii be driven back on agri-
culture as a main means OF existence. If
autocracy continues strict laws may be
passed against emigration, but under
revolutionary government such a policy
would be impossible, and we may expect to
see considerable bodies Of German refugees
drifting to freer lands than their own. II
is very uncertain whether the prisoners Of
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03

fundamental to the Allied plan. To make
this appreciated I shall turn in my next
points to the function of the containing
wing.
The great part of the Americans dur
ing the past weeks and pending further
operations has been to form the con-
tanning wing Of the great Allied sweep.
The function of such containing wing
in a movement of this sort is the most
useful and the most necessary of all,
but it is Of the kind that least adver-
tises itself in movement.
When you have at once the superiority
of numbers and also the initiative over
an enemy holding a bulge or salient
against you, you try to reduce the salient
by striking its two eXtremities That is,
you act principally Oh your two wings,
maintaining in the centre only as much
pressure as is necessary to pin the
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03

war, especially in Russia, will wish to re-
turn nome. Also we must remember that
the junker class-which in France was de-
s1royed by the gulllotine-has fallen largely
IN battle, where casualties have tended to
clear out the caste of birth from which
officers were drawn.
The financial future OF Germany. there
fore. IS dark indeed, and she has to face
inevitably what she deserves. One result OF
her plight is likely to be readiness to limit
and indeed to abolish ornaments until sbo
mas recovered something Of her former pros
perlty Before the war she maintained
abie-bodied soldiers. In years to come she
VAL need what money she has to maintain
her cripples and her insane.
Finally, should mention the depreciation
Of the mark. If peace were signed to-mor-
row it would be impossible to say at what
price the mark would stand on money mar
kets outside of Germany. But the discount
would be heavy. That discount would be in
effect an addition to the first cost of anv
raw materials which Germany might obtain
for her industries. Yet until her industries
are started again she cannot produce tho
manufactured goods the exports of which
"ouiu DdA6uce tne exchange. Apart from
boycott, therefore, she begins life after the
war with a serious handicap which will clog
the wheels of her factories and compel her
to run them at loss-a less perilous alter
native than unemployment of discharged
soldiers. >.
Britain also has had difficulty with her
exchanges, especially with America, when
we were doing all the buying and you were
doing all the selling. But the whole world
was eager to help US out By means of credits
and other devices. In Germany's case, how
ever, public opinion will not tolerate any
such assistance by governments and money
markets. She will have to stand on her own
feet, and possibly she may begin by selling
her raw material at the expense of her in
dustries. Anyway, after the successful wars
which occupied her from 1866 to 1871, it
took her a decade to get into her CONNER
cial stride, and those were the years when
the foundations Of British commerce, in tina
modern sense, were laid. This war has not
been success for Germany 1t has cost
her hundred times the loss incurred in
previous struggles. And she will feel tn.
effects as long as the grandchildren Of hen
youngest babies survive.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
American Army the Meuse the Backbone of Allied Atac
Winter Will Not Save the Hun From Increased
Pressure Against His
Copyright, 1918, New York Tribune Inc.

Its business is to hold great masses of
the enemy and by SO doing TO permit its
fellow at the other extreme to advance
rapidly and compel general retire
ment, but its usefulness to the general
scheme is as high and if anything
higher than any other component part
Of the scheme. Not only does it thus
contain, that is, pin down and prevent
the movement Of great masses which
the enemy could otherwise use else
where, but it exercises the force 7 have
called suction.
This third point of our comprehen-
sion of the whole system and the part
played by the sectors of the Upper
Mouse is very important. A superior
opponent has through his superiority
this advantage among others over the
enemy: He can compel the enemy to
fatigue himself. He can compel the
enemy to throw in division after division
and forbid such divisions after days of
battle to obtain sufficient rest. While
he himself gives the divisions with
which he has recently attacked, say,
three weeks for rest and recruitment
his dwindling opponents are compelled
to throw in corresponding divisions
again within a week or ten days, with
all the consequent loss of efficiency
which is progressively increasing.
On those parts Of the line where the
enemy short Of complete disaster is
compelled to hold on at all costs, this
compulsion to fatigue his parts is I'M
posed with such severity that he would
break down unless he perpetually re-
newed his forces. AS he here suffers
the greatest pressure and must hold or
lose everything, he pours in men con-
tinually, and though the line does not
appreciably move on the map, we must
visualize wastage, which is more impor-
tant than movement
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
\ dvance Would Threaten
"a the Main Railway

From Metz to Lille are the great main
line railways which are the necessary
lateral communications for this great
arc, or bow. They run through Mont
NEEDY, Sedan, Hirson, Valenciennes and so
to Lille. This line linked up Lorraine
with the Belgian sheaf of communica-
lions, and all the supplies Of the million
men who lay in the forward thrust of
the great salient between Arras and the
Argonne depended on it. Now this
railway runs in all it's eastern part
right under the difficult country of
the Ardennes, and if you will look
at your map you will see that the
point where the belt defending it
was narrowest was the sector of Yer
dun; that is, the two sides of the Upper
Mouse just north of that town. 1t was
here that the front ran dangerously
close to the main lateral railway, and
any considerable advance along the two
sides of the Meuse below Verdun threat
ened to put this vital railway under fire
and therefore cut it,
FURTHER, should Allied pressure COM
pei the enemy to retire, he would, Of
course, retire where there was the most
open ground behind him, that is, by the
north on the right, pivoting on the left
OF southeastern extremity of the active
front in the sector before Verdun. A
strong advance, therefore, in this sector
not only threatened to cut off at the
root the lateral communications where
by the German armies on the north
communicated with the south and there
by the great German mass in the centre
was supplied, but also to break the hinge
or pivot of possible retirement, which
retirement we know was imposed on the
enemy and has taken place.
When on September 26 what the
enemy long expected took place and the
main battle was opened with powerful
American attack in this vital sector
north of Verdun and between the Ar
come and the Meuse, the enemy met it
by a heavy concentration. 1t was a
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
. ielding to Continuous
l. Pressure

Inc junction OF the containing wing
has been exercising continuous pressure
on the most vital point, compelling the
enemy to weaken resistance elsewhere
and thereby permitting the whole proc
ess OF the advance on the north which
has lost for the enemy the seacoast and
thrown him back from the Scheldt. 1t
has been far more important than any
cession of ground, has worn down the
line and narrowed the margin between
security and the breaking point.
Can the pressure be continued? Will
winter conditions and the recruitment
of the Allies permit continuance? I'm
doubtedly. The winter lul of the last
two years depended on two factors. One
was the exhaustion of the Allied re-
cruitment and the other was the difficult
ty Of advancing over ground in the
north; that is, in Flanders. where the
great effort took place which had been
subjected to the intensive bombardment
thought necessary in the earlier stages
Of the war
To-day the problem of recruitment
10 oOANSO ny VIC CONTINUAL ARRIVAL OF
American forces. The problem of the
ground is solved by the fact that the
war has become war of movement. no
longer involving the churning up of the
soil by prolonged bombardment upon a
narrow belt and by the extension of the
movement out of the Waterloo district
southwark to dryer regions
More important than either of these
considerations is the fact to-day the enc
my does not hold as equal against equal.
lie is not, as in late 1916, and even late
1917, an exhausted man standing against
another man equally exhausted and both
parties pausing to recuperate. He is
man suffering from an exhaustion far
more rapid than that of his opponent,
and he is man suffering the political
peril of constantly nearer approach to
his own frontiers.
The pressure will continue and it will
continue VIGOROUSLY, and one of the
great factors of its victory will prove to
have been the containing effort the
American armies have exercised this
autumn on the upper Meuse
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
By p. w. Wilson
correspondent for "7he London Daily
NeWs")

ANCUS !
TIME way Of the transgressor is hard,
and Germany is said to be bank
l. rupt. Strictly, this is not true, for
financial authorities estimate that
ger assets before the war amounted to $780,
vN'0OooOO, and my own belief is that the
'sure is too small. Anyway, Germany has
Y present accumulated debt of about $685.
S"'vVo,0o0, or less than half her whole
'sa'th. On this showing, if she were sold
ap' she could pay off her liabilities and still
ave 90 cents on the dollar remaining. We
saSnt not to underestimate even her dimin-
seed financial resources, for she is past
sssser IN the art of sustaining credit. Still,
sss predicament is grave. She publishes no
asa' account of what money she has spent
( = me war and the above figures do not in
aaoe the immense liabilities imposed on the
m0ssidual German states. Moreover, Ger
ssny IS to-day swept by panic.
Usually nervous people hoard precious
ss'a'. To-day this is impossible in Ger
sahy, since the government at an early
sNsc IN the war persuaded everybody to
ssss with gold, even to the wedding rings
'ae married women. Last year small
%ssa' coinage was withdrawn as far as pos
s's'e from circulation, so that what people
sN "-day putting in their stockings is
sSsf currency. Depositors withdraw their
s Jus from the banks and keep ready money,
''Sh Bears no interest, in their purses. The
s.eu's Is that after increasing paper money
wa wa nan billion dollars before the war
f0'OOo 100000 now Germany is still short
AVAILABLE currency, and with run ON the
~ proceeding, especially along the
The printing press has to be kept
'a ~ work, with disastrous results on tho
4asreisi structure.
wee every year Germany places a war
w.. IN September. 1917, her loan raised
- In March, 1918, with the
49,, driyc proceeding, the issue produced
10y 100000, 900. This result, like the
$50 OF previous loans, was due to the
exhaustion OF raw material. Every
1 vac selling everything they possessed
'as government and lending back to the
ssaFpsnt what the government paid. This
~ thst for the tins being there was
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
enemy to his salient, trying as far as
possible to hook him.
From Esquella, Barcelona

possible TO nook nm.
Now, short of some very bad blunder
on the part Of the enemy, or gross in
feriorlty, you will hardly secure en-
velopment in a movement on this vast
scale. There is no example in this war,
not even against the half-supplied and
broken armies of Russia at the end Of
the 1915 campaign. But by the threat
of development you compel him to re-
tire with Il very heavy loss of men and
material, and during the compulsion he
will naturally give way before the wing
that threatens his very life. This latter
wing, therefore, which by exercising
constant and unvarying pressure per-
mits the wing at the other extremity to
do its work and go forward, is called
the containing wing.
It's role is for the moment ungrateful.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
Communications Through
~ Belgium and Lorraine

The nature of the ground and the po-
litical developments of centuries conse-
quent on it have compelled all the main
communications of the armies proceed
ing from east to west out of Germany
into France to lie through the Belgian
plain and through Lorraine. At the
present moment both the Belgian plain
and the fertile, metalliferous Lorraine
district are a network of railways and
roads by which very large armies can be
supplied and wounded evacuated, two
things equally important to maintaining
the life and health of force.
To the south of Lorraine lie the Vosges
and to the south of the Belgian plain
lies the difficult country of the Ardennes.
Through neither is there the proper COM
munication to the front that can only
Ne found in sheaf of communications
through open country, such as Luxem-
burg, Metz and all the gap up to the
Vosges, or the open country of the Bel
gan plain, which, after the bottle-neck
'Legc has been passed, opens up in q
an.Iike system of railroads from Client
and Brussels on the north to Namur on
he south.
The German armies stood five weeks ago,
after the reduction of their salients, with
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03

a loss of some 100000 prisoners and
half million casualties and nearly 5000
guns, on line which ran pretty we'll
north and south from few miles west
OF Ostend down to the sector Of the front
between Laon and scissors, at which
point they turned the corner of an OBJ
fuse angle and carried on eastward and
a little south past Rheims, through the
Argonne forest and to the Mouse below
Verdun. There they turned another
corner and ran southwark and a little
east after the reduction Of the St. Mihiel
salient on September IL to the Moselle
above Metz at Pont-a- Mousson, covering
Nancy and Luneville, and so on to the
Vosges
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-11-03
pprshing's Autumn Operations Are Funda-
mental to the F0ch
Plan
ho of the Great War; Btans Most Distinguished
- Military Critic
By HILAIRE BELLOC

nrsIRE this week to turn from the
+ General situation Of the war to the
II narticular point of interest to Amer
;can readers and discuss the situa-
3, an either side of the Upper Meuse,
.,,tet with the factor Of continuity in
"a which is of the highest interest
j inheritance at the present moment;
!. other words, the continuance Of press
= m the enemy during the winter.
ror an understanding Of the two Sec
,ers Of the Upper Mouse, east and west
d the river, and the nature and value Of
orssure there, three things must be APP
.,ehended. First, why this sector is of
,uch vital Importance to the enemy; sec
md, the function in strategy of contain
;as the wing; third, the principle which
IS governed the whole Allied attack
.inee the middle of July, which is given
e technical name. but which ! will call,
tor.lack of better title, Suction"
First, then, why was the sector where
,hesAmerican army initiated the attack
II September &c of vital Importance to
tEc enemy? Why was it more important
than any other sector? There are two
reasons. First, it faced the hinge upon
which must pivot any great enemy re-
irennent. Second, because any consid-
cradle Allied advance at this point would
hamper the supplies Of the armies of
The enemy in northern France and COM
pel the surrender of great proportion
If these, with a possible decisive result.