New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-01-13

very grave situation which makes inc
coming six months as critical as the
first six months Of the war.
Vision! Vision!
1t isn't merely that there have been
blunders; plumbers we would and do
expect as the inevitable accompani-
mcnt Of an unmlitary democracy go
ing to war; but it is the absence Of an
appreciation of the necessities Of the
hour by the responsible heads Of bu-
rcaus; the failure to grasp the de-
mands Of this kind of a war game; tho
narrow vision; the stranging red
'or": tho fact that condition could
exist where such delay at such a
,..n~ As III tho matter of the machine
guns and rifles would be possible.
Thus far we have taken little profit
from British and French experience.
With ample warning and time for prep
aration, with unlimited manufacturing
facilities, untold wealth and the models
and counsel of Great Britain and
France to guide us, we should have
put our men afield with the very best
possible equipment instead of which
we have sent them to trials Of body
and spirit, Of endurance and patient
courage such as men never have met
before this WARMTH an equipment in
some respects the least practical, the
least comfortable and serviceablc.
The efficiency and organization upon
which we plumed ourselves and for
which the world took us at our word
have been spicuously absent so far
IS TIE proper equipment and mainte-
nance Of our little army in France is
concerned.
We are in danger of receiving a
crushing blow to our material and
spiritual welloeing unless we come
~ mnt y out Of all dreams of immu-
nifty from victorious Germany, and
awake to a realization Of what this
war means to us, to you and me, to
our business and our homes.
Is There Bigness?
Germany says we can't.
w z H0"C NOIcU 8ACdC ouIuS lO1 lUe.
war and made huge programmes, but
not yet as a people have we risen
above selfish individualistic ambitions
for comfort or power or profit. De-
mocracy, narrowly viewed, makes for
individualistic development for indi-
vidualistic rewards. 1t is for US now
in the face of menace and the call OF
our allies in our cans to show if we
can merge the individual into united
effort for the state and for the cause
on which hangs the fate of the very
democracy by which we live and
prosper.
We must prove big enough to rise
to this need, else we shall be too late
next spring in France, and so justify
Germany's estimate Of u.s.
Some of us, through the press, are
still patting ourselves on the back
over what Eve have DONE; but it be-
hooves US to be modest before the
great deeds, under greater hancicaps
than ours, of England and France and
Canada and Australia.
We have not organized ourselves as
we'll as France did at her beginning;
we have not shown the thorough work
manship Of the British. Unprepared
England two and one-half months af
ter the declaration of war stopped the
Huns at the Yser-at great cost-but
stopped them, and saved Calais and
probably the war. Unprepared Amer
lca nine months after coming in and
SIX months after reaching the front is
still considering the problem of sup
plies and the line Of communication.
SLOW" Old England has beaten
Young America in speed, efficiency, or
ganization!