St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-05-18
H GAMBLERS MAIN

1b lHClln6u W NC uSSpOAAGhL AL Lh'
present crisis, there is no excuse fol
it. The volume of mental gas which
is being emitted from the gasometer'
of the Bureau of Enemy Psychology
in Berlin, is typified beautifully iT
the material gas attack on the little
town OF Armentieres. The British
withdrew from Armentieres, because
its streets had become impossible tc
hold, owing to its bombardment by
gas shells. Once ont of it, however
they proceeded to reurn the compli
ment, and bombarded it themselves
SO heavily with gas shells that the
Germans could not even approach 1t
The civil population was withdrawn,
as were the stores and garrison. Yet
before entering it, the Germans cap.
tured it with a garrison of 5000 mel
and so officers. 1t may incidentally
be remarked that so ocicers is an
uncommonly short complement to
5000 men, but most people have dis
covered by now that the mental gas
works do not always represent facts
quite as they are, and there is a dis
Greet absence OF reference, in all
their communications, to German
losses.
Now, as has been repeatedly ex-
planned, in the columns of this paper,
the value Of an advance, such as
Field Marshal Won Hindenburg's
present one, must be expressed in
terms of cost. Everybody knows that
IL you do not count your losses you
can achieve superficial maryels; but
Ia the long run you have to count
-four losses, and it yet remains for
Field Marshal Won Hindenburg to do
his. Colossal as the English losses
nrobably have been, they must be al
most insignificant compared to those
of the Germans, who are fighting in
close formation against troops, in ex-
tended order holding defenses. 1t,
therefore, follows that there must
have been some huge incentive to the
German High Command to under
take an offensive of such a nature,
which is in the nature of the gam
6ler's main.
Those who have understood best
what has been happening for the
past three years on the western front
have always maintained that the day
must come when the Germans, in
desperation, would put their fate to
the test Of a battle just such as this.
The very fact that this moment has
come, ought, therefore, to be a
source of congratulations rather than
otherwise to the Allies. Even the
loss1ss hideous as they are, will not
probably, on their side, amount to
q than those of a long drawn out
campaign. On the part of the Ger
mans, on the other hand, they will
amount to something very much
more severe But the fact is that a
country, situated like Germany, can
not possibly remain permanently on
the defensive. It must do something
to free itself from the ring of steel
engulfing it, even after the break
down of Russia on the eastern front,
The very fact that the war has been
extended to the United States will
eventually more than compensate for
the failure of Russia. Germany sees
this SO clearly that she has timed
her effort to dispose OF the remain
ing Allies while she is in a force SUI
perior to them, before, that is to say,
the United States can transport a
sufficiently trained army across the
Atlantic to make up for the Russian
disafection.
But Germany has not played her
last card yet. Her last card is her
fleet. And when the Grand Fleet
eventually energies, as it is sure to
do, from Wilhelmshaven and Kiel, it
win be a pretty good indication that
the sands of German resistance are
running out. For it is impossible to
believe that Germany will surrender
with that card unpIayed. The fact
that the fleet OF the United States
has now been added to the fleets of
France, of Italy and OF the United
Kingdom, has made Germany's chan
ces at sea any better. And it is for
this reason that she Is making such
desperate efforts to round up the
Russian fleet in the Baltic, and SO
add its ships to her own before she
strikes. If the Bolsheviki, however,
are not hopeless traitors to their own
country, those ships will neye fall
into the hands of Germany in a con-
dition in which they can be used.
All the same time, that Germany has
reason to hope that she can obtain
possession of them in a form in which
they can be utilized is clear from her
efforts to cornor them. In this last
case suggestion has, OF course, not
been omitted. The capture of the
Russian ships has been announced
more than once, but in each case it
has proved propaganda Of the usual
kind, and has been meant to depress
the hopes Of the Allies, and that