The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-11-09
Big Factor
In Breaking Strength
Ofthe Central P0we1S
BY FRANK #. sIMoNDs
Author of THE World War;" They Shall Not Pass
Copyright. 1918, New York Tribune, Inc

Not since Waterloo has any Eu-
ropean battle concluded with so i'm
mediate and complete a, collapse of
nation as did the Austrian disaster
in the second battle Of the Pave. In
deed, one must in reality turn to
Jena for anything like a parallel, for
even after Waterloo France remain
ed a definite and coherent unity, re-
manned force to be reckoned with
IN all future European calculations.
But Austria, like Prussia after
Jena, has collapsed: her power to re-
sist is at an end, her very existence
is problem in the hands of her
foes, who may we'll avoid the mis-
take made by Napoleon when he per-
mitted Prussia to continue.
In the Italian triumph-and we
must frankly and freely recognize
that the triumph was Italian, since
the allied aid consisted Of but two
British divisions, one French divis-
ion and a single American regiment
the military aspect Is Immediately
lost in the political. AS a battle
the Second Plave lasted at most for
week, the anniversary week of the
great disaster of Caporetto, one year
resistance was sharp and deterTnin-
ed, but before the battle had progress
sed far there came, first, battlefield
collapse, and then a surrender to
! terms dictated on the battlefield, an
armistice across the firing lines.
Thus. in one short week we have
seen the surrender Of Turkey and of
Austria, the liberation of Serbia, the
passing of the Coburg dynasty from
Bulgaria, the end Of the Hapsburg
dynasty in Austria Hungary. While
the Austrian army was losing it's last
battle the Dual Monarchy was break
| ing up behind it, disbanding, resolv-
ing itself into a group of republics,
the number still indeterrninate, with
! BolsheVism racing with nattonahsm
! to control the ruins Of the fallen
state.
Italian Hopes Crushed.
But it is to the Italian side of the
gigantic drama that we must first
| turn. A hundred years ago the first
| aspirations of the Italian people, ex-
| pressed imperfectly but coherently
in Napoleon's kingdom Of Italy a
fragment Of the real Italy, were
crushed at the congress Of Vienna.
| The fair body Of Italy was thrown
back to the Hapsburg and Bourbon
despoilers, Venice and Piedmont
were made Austrian, the wretched
Neapolitan dynasty was restored,
North Italy below the Pc Valley was
again partitioned among princes and
princesses who turned to Vienna for
their support and conducted them
| selves on Italian soil as German
armies have conducted themselves in
/ France in the present war.
A generation Of agony followed,
while Italy slowly gathered the moral
spiritual forces for her great awak-
ening. And then, when the revolu-
ton Of 1S48 swept over Europe, Italy
ultimate sanction Of the Austrian
/ yoke, a permanent guarantee of
| italian misery. The Savoy sovereign
who abdicated after Novara and left
| his country seemed to be carrying
with him the last hope Of thirty mil
| lions of Italians.
But after NoVara, came the swift
change. Cayour undertook the
mighty task. Savoy allied herself
with France and a, new Napoleon
acquired temporary laurels in Italy
BY the victories Of Solferino and
Magenta, which liberated Piedmont
and doomed the patchwork of mon
arches south Of the Pc. Garibaldl
and his immortal Thousand" swept
the Bourbons out of Naples. But the
loser Napoleon lost courage, LETT
Venetia still in Austrian hands and
continued to defend the temporary
power of the Pope in Rome.
Italy Turns to Prussia.
Then Italy turned to Prussia, and
in the war Of 1866 regained Venetia.
But Bismarck, like Napoleon III,
! fa lied m ba fioY7 of
Italy. Trieste and the Trenttno, to-
gether with Rome, were still outside
the kingdom. French defeats in 1870
ended the temporal power of the
Pope, and Rome became again, after
centuries, the capital of the Latin
state Of Italy. And now, after IS
years more, the Italian tricolor floats
over Trieste and Trent, Italian lib
GRAFTON is complete, a century of
struggle, of agony and of glory is
ending with these last splendid days,
when Austrian armies are fleeing in
ruin or surrendering Internationally;
a final eXpunging of the sorrow Of
Novara is taking place.
And this victory demonstrates
clearly the soundness of Italian
craftsmanship in entering the world
war on the allied side more than
three years and a. half ago. When
the war came Italy was still allied to
A Germany and Austria. A marriage of
convenience growing out of the
political policies Of Crispi and the
manipulation of Bismarck condemn
ed Italy to fight against the liberal
nations of the world if Germany and
Austria were attacked or = claimed
themselves the assailed parties. She
was bound to defend the very jailers
who held her brethren in ignoble
servitude. .-
The refusal Of Italy to transform
a defensive into an offensive alliance
in July, 1914, was one Of the de-
cisive moments Of the whole war.
Had Italy marched against France
the Battle Of the Marine would have
been a German victory, for French
corps which just sufficed to win that
struggle would have been fixed upon
the Alpine frontier. But Italy did
more than release French troops; she
promptly conflded to the world that
she intended to be neutral. France
knew it in the earliest hours Of the
war and, knowing her southern
frontier was safe, took her military
measures accordingly. Moreover, it
was the warning of an Italian ambas-
sador which led Britain to keep her
fleet mobilized in the critical days
just before war came.
From August, 1914, to May, 1915,
Italy stood neutral. A great battle
was waged in the peninsula between
the German influences and the Italian
patriots, who saw clearly that neu-
trality was not possible. Once it was
decided that italy would not march
with Germany and with Austria, a.
thing impossible, then 1t was not
less patent that Italy could not stay
outside the war and maintain her
moral or material position in the
world after the war had ended. Like
T&aIT fv,