Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-02-28

nan We're checked. North Of Lima.
vile in the destroyed town of Crevic is
the ruined home of General lyautey
who saved Morocco for France. who
sent out the latest of French acouisi-
tions thousands of troops to fight the
Germans. And in sheer spite the Ger
mans burned his home as they did that
of President Poincare in another tor-
raine village.
country in which our American troons
are beginning to fight; now for the mil
ltary circumstances. Between the Mo-
selle and the VOSgeS and between ths
forts of Toul, which reach almost ia
the environs of Nancy and the similar.
forts of Epinal. is IN open gap In the
defenses erected by the French af1er
the loss of Alsace-Lorraine and tl1e
German annexation of S~trassburg and
Metz, their ancient bulwarks. 10 cover
their new frontier. This gap, the GAP
OF Charmes and also the Gap of Mire-
court, in military geography, were in
all antebellum calculations believed to
OF the next wnr with Germany, for
only through this gap, if they respected
the neutrality of Belgium, could he
reach Paris promptly.
Logical Gateway tor Germans.
Accordingly every hill. every bridge,
every detail Of the country had been
studied and | have before me q book Of
a French officer, published years before
the present war, outlining the positions
which he French would take to defend
this gateway. They did take these posi-
tons n they did hold the gateway.
commanded by the great C%astelnau.
after the first defeats in German terri
tory, but the main German effort was
made elsewhere and the Lorraine
called. did not obtain the attention it
deserved. Yet the German effort here
was great n from the Grand Cour-
onne you may see, on a clear day, the
NIL on which the kaiser sat, Watching
the final assault Of his troops which
were 10 open the way for his trium-
pnal entry Into Nancy. But at Epley. as
later at Montfaucon before Verdun. he
waited in vain.
And now our American troops are
taxing over all this front, little by little.
!! do not believe they will hold more
INA 90 miles at the end of the year.,
the SO miles from Pont-a-Mousson to
the foothills of the Vosges. Their front
runs from southeast to northwest and
IT crosses a number Of little valleys
which run nearly east and west. West
ward along these valleys, or eastward.
as the war Is offensive or defensive,
wili move the masses OF troops. Each
OF the valleys is traversed by an i'm
poftant highway. several by railways:
the main Paris S~trassburg railway
comes up the Meurthe from Nancy to
LuneVille and then turns eastward to
cross the frontier only a couple of miles
from the place where our first Ameri-
can soldiers were killed or captured.
Between this railway and the Rhine
Marine canal. which crosses the firing
une three miles Or so to the north. is
me forest OF Parroy n this, to judge
from h German official reports, was
the first American sector.
Little by little, if the events here fol-
low the precedent of the British front
10 the west, American troops will lake
over sections Of the French trenches.
Conceivably the first real stretch will
be from the Settle river, due east of
ancy, where the! Nancy Chateau
to h Paris S~trassburg railway. / have
no and if I had any I
should not discuss the thing. It ia
merely a matter Of speculation. but it
seems an obvious thing, given what we
are permitted to know of the situation.
Near the old frontier Of France, then.
the frontier to which France retreated
AFTER 1871, Il armies are now en-
camped and in some small number our
troops are already on the line facing
MetZ. behlnd them are the cities Of
Toul, Nancy and Luneville, across the
front which they first occupied all will
doubtless take owe again run the roads
which the Germans took on the way to
Paris In 1870, and sought to take once
more in 1914. We are holding a little
we shall probably before too long
hold all Of what was once reckoned
the real gateway to France, while
scraps of paper still had a binding
w in theory, at least.
Tx we make an offensive, an offen-
which succeeds in any measure. it
will mean restoring something Of AL
sace-Lorraine to France. II the Ger
mans attack, it will be to crush our
little army" as they
sought to crush the first forces Of
Britain at Ypres, with the hope of TAX
Nancy and ravaging the important
mineral district of Lorraine, the frac-
ton left to France now. 1t Is a post of
danger, then. and Of honor, which our
troops are taking over-which they
just begun to take over. for We
must not ~eXaggerate.
Babies Can Save World.
From the Chicago News,
"Heredity? Oh, 1 say! Environment can
knock heredity into a cooked hat!"
In on terse sentence, DR.. TRULY Kiue
EUnn hn0 nNH nrrv w. 49,.