Evening star., 1918-01-16
HAVE BUT TO HOLD
To WIN THIS WAR
Struggle Is a Test of Our Cour-
age and Endurance, AS
serts F. H. Simonds.
TIME NOW FOR HOPE
by FRANK H. sIMONDS.
Copyright, 1881


appropriate application than at the pres
ent moment. All OF us. the nations in
arms against Germany. are passing
through grim and trying hours. Hopes
well founded and hopes Ill founded nave
alike collapsed: war weary. the world
faces more war. There are to be millions
more casualties.
And, in addition, war is beginning to
invade the smallest details OF our own
lives What was last year terrible, but
far away, is now distressing and within
our gates. The fine hours when the nrst
regiments march and men and women
are buoyed up by visible evidence OF
splendid lf-sacrifice have passed by; war
is the most monotonous, least inspiring
business in the world at the front and at
the rear, and the agony and the monotony
have come.
Passing Through Depression.
We have had bitter disappointments
in Russia and Italy. We have had less
er establishments nearer home. Our
great effort will be long delayed; we
shah not arrive soon; nor has our ma
tionat pride been spared in the reVela-
tions of failures at the very start.
Such being the case. we have been
passing through period OF depression.
In the gloom the enemy takes on
gigantic form, and in the obscurity our
own resources and those of our allies
shrink sadly. The weak of heart begin
to murmur. the disloyal and the un-
stable hasten to add to the depression
of the war.
Inevitable in War.
W. 1. an. will h,,f faca these things
are they not. after all. inevitable Incl
dents of war? When has great battle
for a noble cause been easily Won
Thinking in terms of American his.
were the long. drab years of suffering
in the revolution, with so Few mo-
ments Of victory. or even near victory!
There are many still alive to tell or
the depression of 1864. when Grant S
army disappeared into the shadows of
the wilderness and emerged only at the
shambles of Cold Harbor.
Are we,. the sons and daughters OF the
men of 1854. the inheritors of the tradt-
tions Of the ragged Continentals, to be
5000 miles away? Are we, whose
ancestors fought against all the odds
of the revolutionary era, to be con-
euered in advance Of battle by foe
whose losses we know. whose weak
nesses grow daily more manifest?
No nation ever had to face a struggle
with greater odds against 1t than Ger
many today. And when Germany mad
numbers, munitions everything that
and organization could
give her of advantage, she failed at
the Marne, at Ypres and Verdun.
Believes Worst Is Over.
transferred from the front to the rear.
Only behind the lines can Germany
win. and behind her own lines there Is
weakness Often deceived, often mis-
led. one hesitates to believe what is
true in 1913 because one wrongly be-
lieved it true In 1915.
Whatever happens in this war, the
worst is over. Come what may. we
shall not see another such crisis as
the Marne, a crisis like only to those
when on French soil the Huns In Cham-
pagne and the Saracens in Poitou were
oyerthrown by western civilization un-
der French leadership. We have but to
hold to win. to hold where the line has
never yet broken.
National confidence is individual con-
f1dence. The courage Of the individual
is a valuable element in the collective
of the community, the nation.
War Test Of Our Spirit.
The war is conflict between civiliza-
tions, ideals, ideas, before 1t Is battle
between men. Our armies will not win
at the front II those who stay behind
do not give them the moral support
they need. The spirit of France pre-
vailed when the material was weak at
the Marne, at Verdun. Materials can
not win now against equal material re-
sources unless the spirit fails the one
and inspires the other.
We are living in discomfort. incon-
venience, approximate hardship; but
what Of It? It is test Of our courage,
endurance. loyalty; it Is test of our
spirit; If we fail. the war is lost; If we
hold, 1t Is won. In fact, we can now
lose an assured victory only II, like the
Russians in Galicia last spring. we nee
the field of victory.
This Is one Of the great crises Of the
war. assuredly. 1t is one of the great
tests of the spirits OF peoples. The Ger
man says his spirit, his method. his
ideal are best because they are strong
est. He says that his brutalittes. his
crimes, his offenses against civilization
are justified because they weaken the
foes and unite the friends. But Is this
true?
Every One Must Help to Victory.
We are all of us at war with Ger
many, every man and woman. whatever
the post or station we hold. Each must
help to victory; each can aid defeat by
doubt. by fear. by hesitation. by fixing
his eyes beyond the battle to be fought.
upon respites never earned without ef-
fort.
1t is a time for courage. for hope 1t
Is time for each man to win his share
of the battle, each woman to conquer
her part of the field. We are not mere
ly in a military but even more in a
,r,f oiN 1tao SNr,