The Washington herald., 1918-06-26
All Glory Be To Italy.

There is a law of compensation and Of eternal
fitness OF things after all.
Nine months ago Italy threw the whole cause
OF civilization into the blackest valley of despair
Today she leads it to the Alpine mountaintop with
tic golden lands of greater days stretched out as
iar the eye reach.
Caporetto is avenged. Teutonic treachery has
bccu repaid in iull measure. Italy has washed out
i stain and done a service for civilization which
may be written down in history the turning
point of the war
4 week ago we feared the worst for Italy. We
we're not quite certain in minds that she would
not share the fate of Belgium, of Rumania
Serbia and Russia. We remembered her gaping
wounds of last October. We knew how slender
her economic resources were-how little had
been able to supplement them, despite the implor-
ing. urgent appeals that she has made to her allies
since the debacle.
If We were by temperament a praying people,
we would have prayed for Venice, for Milan, for
Padua even for Rome. Italy, for aught we knew
might be broken by the blow, swept out of
the war. We of little faith. We did not know
the mettIe OF the gallant people who have survived
al "thc sings of outrageous fortune" since the
DAYS OF the Caesars and the Antonines, whose
virity in the nineteenth century was revealed in
the War of Liberation whose courage in the pres
cnt war has surmounted the deepest discourage
rIcnts that any OF the nations fighting Germany
have had to facc-discouragement whose real
gravity have never been revealed to the public.
Is it too much to say that the Italian victory
the Piave has revolutionized the whole military
situation? Without reaching up for a battery OF
superatives, it is difficult to exaggerate the inn
portance OF the volteface accomplished the
Italian battlenc. A set OF values has been
established From London and Paris word
that the victory is compared to the battle of the
Marne. The New York World, with pardonable
enthusiasm, says, Fin its appeal to world-thought
the relief of Venice from danger of destruction
ranks second to exploit of the war save the
delivery OF Jerusalem"
What will be the fruits OF the victory First
oi ALL we look for a bareback in Austria. The
Offensive opened under the bullying OF Berlin
d hunger drive" a military quid pro quo. The
mobs in the streets of Vienna and Budapest shout
ing Tor bread were to be given, not stone, but
. bloody victory with food booty following The
ruobs shouting for bread have been given not a
victory, but the defeat Austrian arms have
known since Brussloff overrun Gaicia. Thus did
Berlin ovcrreach itself In its hounderngs to free
itself from the morasS, Austria-Hungary has sunk
into it far more deeply. 1T is not necessary to
datc upon the prospect of revolution in the i'll
starred empire OF the Hapsburgs to see how pro-
ioundly the decentralization OF the country will
affect the immediate future of the war. With a
curious, uncrrng fatasm Austria has been found
wanting every time she has been called upon by
Prussia to play her part. German aid was needed
to smash the various Russian ofcnsives, to crush
Rumania to grind Serbia under her heel.
VIII German aid be forthcoming now? Luden-
dorT reported to be at the Italian front, is at his
hour OF supreme dccsion-whether to weaken HIM
sell at his strongest point in order to strengthen
himself his weakest point In any event, it is
doubtful ii many German effcctiycs be spared
to bolster up Austria-particularly in view OF the
tremendous new stroke soon to be launched on the
western front, which Lloyd George has forecasted
rs the climactcrc thrust OF the enemy.
Germany has been working under the tyranny
OF a timeclock, and Italy has made that time
clock tenfold more impcrious. decision must
be gained the western front. and without delay
That is the only possible way of escape from the
iron ring.
But the Italian victory has made it trebly
tain that the iron ring is not going to break. 1t
will hold. 1t will remain OF steel around
the throat of Junkcrdom, slowly tightening like
some Oriental refinement OF torture, until strangu-
lation is accomplished