Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-02-16

cue expedition Il was business
proposition JUST as much of a neces-
sity, an unpleasant necessity. as clear
ing farm Of ratt.esnakes or ranch
country of horse thieves The Amer
lean people wanted to live after IT'S
own fashion. not interfering. not being
iuterfeTred with. Germany would not
leave them alone This is our world.
she said In effect You must do as
we tell You or We shall hurt you.
Then the patience Of the United States
was exhausted Very well, if you
viii have ii SO, we Will fight you said
the United States ANA without
hurry at q steady marching pace,
making preparation for q vast effort
and for a long time ahead, the United
States came into the war.
The other allied nations began lie
adventures. The Americans began
like business men.
Nothing business like about the
uniforms of the French soldiers at tha
] beginning Rec0iIect the red rous-
7 ers which made the Wearer a suspic-
ious target al long range Lying ont
I on Somme battlefield and watching
them I argued with a French friend
or this topic in the first weeks of the
war. We shall never give them up"
( he cried. They are or tradition.
( our inspiration, eur pauache' OF
course they gave them up.
Amateurish the refusal Of the Brit
+ ish war Office TO speed up the proyls-
( ion of machine guns, when IL was clear
to every one who saw anything of the
( fighting that this vas going to be a
machine gun war, Worse and worse
! became the gubusiuess like conduct
OF Britains war when the men sitting
at desks in London missed the most
I important asDe of the change from
open field bgatiug, and persisted iu
believing that earthWorks could be de-
/ stroyed by shr3pnej when from the
front came the demand week after
/ week in urgent terms for high eXplos-
/ i've.
AIT Tepareduess all lack Of
foresight, all scratching so other Of
Inadequate resources in the moment
I of peril, there be the marks of the
amateur These defects I was Obliged
to admit in England. ] saw their par
alyzing the effects of France and Rus
STA. The French army modified in
+ the wrong place. and the German army
/ entered France through Belgium. as
all sound military opinion has held
/ that it would
The Russians divided the response
/ bllIty by keeping their troops sup
Piled with arms and munitions into
compartments SO completely separate
/ from each other that Headquarters
! did not know what the war office was
dong. and the war Office did not
know what was the capacity of the
munitions factories. and the war
/ minister k0w-towed 10 grand duke
+ who was in charge Of the artillery
department, and the grand duke did
nothing TO spare that unhappy couD-
/ try the opening series Of disasters
which led directly to its present
Wretched state All that was ANA
4 flourish. So far as / can Judge there
viii be none OF this nerveless funh-
ling in the United States.
In four months this country has
/ raised 2 very large army, sent abroad
many regiments which were partly
trained already, begun 10 train the
men Who have never done any soldier
lng For this purpose vast camps
nave been set up The railways have
had 10 study how to move nearly
three quarters of a million men. Most
striking of all to me. whenI recoileet
that nos even Lloyd George dared to
lay hands upon the liquor trade III
England is the Iorbiaaing OF drink