Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1918-10-03
The BEGINNING
OF THE END
BULGARIA SURRENDERS AND
ACCEPTS ALLIED TERMS
NIGHT TO USE COUNTRY.

The war isn't won-yet But a
victory has been achieved so decisive
and far-reaching in its consequences
that it clearly indicates the begin
ming of the end.
Bulgaria has surrendered.
Bulgaria is a small and poor and
! backward country. Its area is only
about one-fifth that Of France. and
| its population but five millions. Its
| developed resources are insignificant.
| 1t is smaller, poorer and less popu-
lace than Rumania.
Yet that Bulgaria has quit has a
direct influence upon the future of
the war UNNECESSARILY greater than
resulted from Rumanias retirement
from the conflict; greater, even, than
came from the Russian collapse.
Rumania was not indispensable to
allied military strategy Or to allied
war purposes. Nor, as the event has
proved, was Russia.
Bulgaria, on the other hand was
an essential link in the chain that
was TO bind the world to the chariot
wheels of German autocracy.
Without Bulgaria and Serbia the
Mittel-Europa dream yanishes into
thin air. 1t was through Bulgaria
that the "Drang Mach Osten" was to
penetrate to Asia Minor and thence
TO India. building an invincible en-
pire. With Bulgaria cut out all the
rest is cut off; the route to Constan-
tinople and Bagdad is closed. Turkey
is left to surrender or perish miser-
ably, and the Hohenzollerns and
Hapsburgs are doomed TO fight a
hopeless warfare to hold what they
have left, with all chances for a vic
torious expansion eliminated.
The surrender of Bulgaria means
something more. tit means that by
next summer the Balkan states will
become the bases of great armies
penetrating to the Jugo-Slav and
Czecho-Slav portions of the Austro-
Hungarian empire. where they will
be received and welcomed as by
friends. 1t means that the nut
cracker formed by these forces. and
the Italian forces to the southwest,
will infallibly crush Austria, if the
lettering empire can indeed endure
that long. Germany will then be left
standing isolated and alone, without
ally or even a friend surrounded by
a world of advancing enemies.
Even that is not the whole of the
story.
For on the West front, where Ger
many has massed the best and nearly
the whole of her military resources,
Foch, with five great armies at his
command, perfectly co-ordinated and
synchronized, is beating a devils tat
too on the German front door. He
has seized, and holds, the aggressive.
He is backed by superior numbers,
superior resources and munitions,
and has proved himself fully the
equal and apparently the superior of
the boosted German general staff in
the major strategy of war. To sus-
| tain and make constantly more for
midable his efforts the United States
| is levying eight billions of taxes,
raising loan of six billions, and
rapidly forwarding its program of
placing 100000 trained troops,
fully equipped and supported, at
Foch's disposal. That means that
from this country alone, despite the
| 5000 miles of water that stretch
between, there will be placed on the
west front more troops, more guns.
more aircraft, more supplies of all
kinds, than Germany can by any pos
sibility assemble.