The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-06-02
ITALY GROWING FACTOR
Gen. Crozier Praises Ce-
MUS, Industry and De-
votion Of Latins.
ALLIES WILL WIN
Gas Becomes More and
More An Important
Weapon Of the
Present War.

Washington. june r.---ItaIy im
daily becoming IA powerful
factor In the war plans Of the al
lies Her genius In engine and
asrpianc eenstrucsion. her wonder
full recovery from thr military re-
verse suffered late In 1917. and her
confidence tn ultimate victory were
visidiy described today by Major
General William Craxier. member
of the nised states war council
and of the board of ordnance and
fortiacatton. who has just
turned after an exhaustive survey
os ordnance plants im France.
England and Italy.
AS result of his study abroad,
General treyi~r believes that
every effort should he made 10 per-
feet the use of poison gas as q war
weapon. lie believes that better gas
shells must he designed nnd pro-
dueed In great quantities before
the allies ~on ssd~atsy attempt
the supreme drive against the
German forces. General Creyter
voiced confidence absolute In the
ability Of the allies to halt all Ger
man offensive. attempted this
year. lie said,
THE purpose Of she German drive In
March was far more clear IN its pur-
pese than that now under way As
vet there is no Indication that the of.
fensiSe can achieve any results Of 4
disastrous nature. The sturdy strength
Of the British and French in holding
fast on the two shoulders Of the wsds
give ample pledge thai the drive soor
will be halted Even II II ia possible
for the German army to straig liter
tho line and com hine the two saltents
created this year. they must still hrins
a. bear huge assault against the
British lines 10 the north.
We muEt remember that the Ger
man strength is now represented hy
TRutons, Austrtans and other indus
triallv Intelligent people r. the mum.
Der Of about 10000 600, Opposed 10
them are shout asooe 600 people who
have shown equal resources,
AZ a result the war on the west
err front has at times come to poin'
where some have said that stale
mate existed, that II Was impossible
for either side 10 break through, Eu'
the German ofTensives this spring have
taught A lesson that cannot be denied
The lesson IL in two parts. First
given sufficient men and artillery. q
great trench system can he pierced
second, without a great force Of re-
serves To hurl through the broken line
no victory can be won.
with these two lessons before n'
il is clear that ultimate victory mus
be with the allies They now indus
trially have equal strength with tbs
intelligent German forces, Given tbs
i1n.ooe. 900 people of the United states
putting forth their full Industrial en-
"rEV for victory. the enemy strength
will he half that of our forces. II
viii mean that we cannot only hreal
the German line, but We VIII be shl'
to do the thing which has heen i'm
possible for Fermany~-n namely. hiring q
great flood OF reserves to make sur'
the victory laid before us by the pri-
mary assault.
IT Is of course impossible ~ discuss
In detail the ordnance strength Of tbs
allies, 1t would appear, however. thai
our greatest anxiety at this time
should be TO perfect ourselves In tht
use and means for using gas,
1T may seem strange that moderr
battles are fought with gas instead
of with lead and Iron, Such is coming
TO he the case. We must Guido ths
Germans IN the use OF gas. for gas il
not only an effective weapon of de
struction. hut II is equally powerful tr
breaking the enemy's morale. for #
Is an unseen foe and there is nothing
..r+at..~; 4. rasr,oa,rr roat,. e. ~,