The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-12-30

'S''''o o1..,.A
+, lasted German by July. thereafter It
was merely a question of how long
German morale would last in defeat
Foeh's Strategy.
! OF Foch's strategy it is too early
to speak with exactness. His method
was the exact opposite OF the German.
He did not seek to gather up all bis
energies and resources and deliver =
, single colossal blow. which II success
full would win the war, but II unsuc-
cessful would paralyze him long pc
| Rod, while he was reconstructing his
tEunderbolt. Rather his method was
one Of swift blows. each light, but
/ each followed promptly by another at
new point. from the moment that
the Ludendorn lost the Second Marne,
| to the end he was never able to re-
construct his own armies or escape
| from the mastery Of Foch's plans, he
had to meet one thurst after another,
conform to his foes strategy until
his cracking army was abandoned by
| a civilian populace which had corn
pletely collapsed.
he last blow on July Is of Ludeu-
dorh was as great a gamble as Napo
icons use of the Old Guard in the
closing hour Of Waterloo. Had Lucen-
dorff retired rather than advanced in
July. regained strategic freedom by
retreat as Hindenburg had done in
1917, he might have escaped final
| disaster for the campaign OF 1918. But
this was his last chance. nor is 1t i'm
! probable that in doing this he would
| have precipitated a collapse OF the
German public which would have has
tened rather than delayed the end.
Americans Turned Tide.
In March the British were beaten,
beaten as they have never been beat
en- in five hundred years OF history
Even now one shudders in recalling
those terrible days. In May the
French were beaten although far
smaller fraction of their main massas
was affected. But had there been no
rush Of American troops to Europe,
becoming visible and in a slight mea-
sure available by the first days of
June, the two allied defeats might
have given Germany victory on the
Continent, a chance to write another
Treaty of Tilsit such as Napoleon
wrote in 1907 after Austerlitz, Jena
and Friedland. But before we gave
military aid. our troops supplied a
moral stimulus, we became a vast bal
ance in the bank soon to become avail
able, at the moment when despair was
abroad
History will, believe, reckon that
this was lost on the day the Germans
decided upon their submarine block
ade of 1917. which brought the United
States into the war. This will be
reckoned as fatal to Germany as was
Moscow to Napoleon. Napoleon
, fought one more campaign in Germany
after his Russian disaster. a great
campaign which narrowly missed vic
tory at certain moments, but his doom
was written in the terrible events of
the previous year. It was beyond the
resources of France to supply him
with the men necessary to continue
his great victories. and once he .suf-
fered real defeat, the French people
deserted him.
1t was the same with Ludendorff,
he and those about him assured the
German people that the war could be
! won be the submarine and the army
! before America could intervene. But
| when America INTERVIEWED. after the
German campaign had failed on sea
and on land, the German people gave
1t up. they saw America at last cor
rectly, and seing, surrendered.
Greatest In War.
We Americans reaped where others
sowed. our victories were everywhere
made possible by the endurance of
those who had died in defeat or des
perate defense, where we attacked
We were still small element in the
total host. when the battle ended.
But we had behind us numbers mex.
haustable. we had been able to supply
precious, perhaps decisive handfulls.
In the worst days, and we were sweep.
ing before us the remnants of FORTY
German divisions who had striyen
vainly to check up. in the final act.
In all ways the campaign of 1918
was the greatest in the war. in ths
history Of modern war. 1t had all the
terrible fascination OF a battle Ion.
In doubt: it had the final lift az .
supreme victory. On the military side
1t revealed the decisive contest ha.
tween wo great military systems
each splendidly represented by a great
soldier. But the victory of the French
system over the German was comnlete
and the advantage OF Foch over Ind.
endorf will never be questioned.
And as the war was saved at the
Marine in 1914. SO It seems to me Il
was won at the same stream in 1919
These are the supreme tests Of the
war. forever memorable in the history
of human liberty.
A thirteen-year-Old girl in Ohio
a member of girls club-won first
prize in her county bp putting up I'M